CoG: Magister Unknown
by Soleneus
Summary: Sometimes, tragedies are the gateway to great adventures. No one really knows about Naruto Uzumaki, except that he's the new teacher for 2-A, he's handsome, and his past is unknown to everyone. There's an Unknown in Mahora, and changes are fast coming. "Why would you even think this is the beginning?"
1. The New Teacher of 2-A

_Of all the damn days to be late!_ A tall blonde teen thought angrily to himself as he jogged through the halls of The Wales Academy of Magic.

He wore casual-formal, a pair of black jeans held up with black leather belt inscribed with thorny vines, held closed by a silver belt buckle with an engraving of a Narcissus. A dark orange shirt stretched across his chest, a white swirl-symbol stitched in the middle. Over that he wore a dark blue suit jacket with silver buttons. Dangling from his neck was a simple leather cord holding a green gem that sparkled in the right light. Over his bright blue eyes sat a pair of rectangular glasses that seemed to sharpen his gaze. His bright blonde hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, with a few stray bangs that brushed over his forehead.

He slowed down in front of a set of doors, straightening his jacket of wrinkles before opening a door quietly. He skirted around the edges of a seated crowd watching as students were called up to the stage and handed their diplomas as well as a blank card that would magically write an assignment for the grad.

The man spotted a woman with long blonde hair sitting by herself on the end of a row, glancing around every once in awhile, as if looking for someone.

He slid into the seat surreptitiously, appearing as though he had been there the entire time. The woman turned on him with a sharp glare in her grey eyes and hissed, "Where have you been, Naruto? You almost missed it!"

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Gomen, Nekane-chan. I nearly forgot with all of the work I was doing."

Nekane huffed and looked away with a small blush and muttered to herself under her breath, "_Work._ Yeah right, more like tongue wrestling with Theodora."

The blonde man smirked slightly and threw an arm over Nekane's shoulder and pulled her body against his. "Is that jealousy I hear, Nekane-chan?" He whispered lowly into her ear, purposefully breathing slightly more.

Nekane shivered as a blush covered her face. "Oh look, there goes Negi!" She nearly shouted in what was clearly an attempt at misdirection.

Naruto's smirk grew, but he leaned back free up his arm and clapped for the ten year-old redhead as he took his diploma.

In the back of the room, leaning casually against a wall with a stick of rock candy held between oddly sharp, triangular teeth was a girl, with a mop of messy black hair. Her purple eyes held an odd, almost crystalline quality to them, bringing to mind a geode, of all things. She was fairly curvy, though it was hard to tell under her baggy clothes.

"So that's the Unknown…" She muttered to herself quietly. "He looks very familiar…"

Negi Springfield nearly skipped to Nekane and Naruto, holding his diploma high. "Nii-chan! Onee-chan! I did it, I really did it!"

Nekane had a wide, beautiful smile on her face as she hugged the ten year-old tightly. "I knew you could do it, Otouto!"

Once she had released Negi, Naruto pulled him into a one-armed hug with the other hand mussing his hair. "Of course you did, Negi! With me teaching you, how could this not be anything BUT a walk in the park?"

A girl with long, messy pink hair joined them with a smile. "Hey guys! I just got my assignment-a fortune teller in London! What's yours, Negi?"

Before the short red-head could open it, Naruto pulled out a camera. "Hold up! An event such as this requires documentation!"

The foursome gathered tightly, Negi and Anya in front and Naruto and Nekane in the back as Naruto held the camera above them at an angle to get all of them in the frame. He winked surreptitiously at the pinkette and leaned back as he ready the camera. "Say cheese!"

Before Negi or Nekane could say cheese, Naruto kissed Nekane on the cheek, while Anya did the same to Negi. Blushes lit up both of their faces, and that was when Naruto snapped the picture.

Anya giggled as Negi froze in shock and Naruto chuckled as Nekane's eyes glazed over. "Come on, otouto, let's find out what your assignment is!"

The ten year-old mage blinked up at his older brother blankly. "…assignment?"

Naruto let loose a bellowing laugh at the expression on Negi's face, who nearly fainted from all of the blood in his body rushing to his face. He fumbled it open and waited as the words began to write themselves over the paper.

_Teacher in Japan._

Anya's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Teacher in Japan? There must be some kind of mistake!"

Nekane nodded and voiced her agreement. "Let's go see the dean, maybe he gave you the wrong one."

Naruto smiled mysteriously as he followed them as they approached the dean, who was talking to a few people. "Excuse me, dean-sensei! We think Negi's gotten the wrong assignment!" Anya tugged on his sleeve to get his attention.

The dean adjusted his spectacles as he looked over the paper. He blinked in surprise. "You're right! Let me just fix that…" He flicked the paper with his wrist, smiling as it corrected itself. "Here you go; your assignment."

Naruto nearly broke out in chuckles as they read the new assignment: _Assistant Teacher in Japan._

…

_(Later…)_

Anya was helping Negi pack upstairs as Naruto waited with Nekane in the living room. The blonde haired girl was playing with the hem of her dress nervously, shooting glances at Naruto, flushing when she realized that he was looking at her with an amused smirk playing about his lips.

"So…Nekane-chan…we haven't had a silence this awkward since you walked in on me while I was getting out of the shower." Naruto said in an amused tone.

Nekane blushed heavily, and managed to stutter out, "W-when are you g-guys coming b-back?"

The blonde man shrugged. "It'll be awhile before we can come back to Wales. That doesn't mean you can't visit us at Mahora."

Nekane shot him a questioning gaze. "Mahora? Isn't that an all girl's school?"

Naruto grinned widely and wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Yes, yes it is."

She looked down at her feet, instead of yelling at him for being perverted, and this worried Naruto greatly. "Nekane…are you okay? You know you can tell me anything…right?"

She played with her fingers as her hair shadowed her face. Suddenly, she stood up, a determined glint in her eye. Naruto gave Nekane a confused look as she approached him slowly. "Nekane-"

The blonde girl threw herself at Naruto, taking him completely by surprise as she slammed into him, making the couch tip backwards and spilling them onto the carpet in a tangle of limbs.

As shocking as this seemingly violent action was, what was more shocking to Naruto was the fact that she was kissing his lips passionately. He was so surprised that he didn't react for three whole seconds, before his mind rebooted and he began to kiss her back just as passionately.

She separated from him to stare into his cerulean eyes with her cloudy grey, her blonde hair hanging around them like a curtain of yellow silk. "Don't forget me, Naruto…" Nekane whispered pleadingly. "Promise me that you'll remember that I'll always be here for you, all you need to do is call and I'll be there in an hour."

Naruto's eyes softened as a small grin curled his lips. "I wouldn't dream of forgetting you, Nekane-chan…you will always be on my mind."

Tears gathered slightly in her eyes as she smiled softly down at him. Nekane bent her neck and kissed him again. It was less passionate but more sweet and promising, gentle and warm.  
This was the position that Negi and Anya found them in, having come down from upstairs to see what had fallen over, instead finding the two blondes kissing rather heavily.

Negi's jaw dropped as Anya giggled behind her hand. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Negi shouted at the top of his lungs, making the two blondes jump apart as if electrocuted violently.

…

_(Two Days Later…)_

Negi glared at Naruto from his seat on the crowded train, his light red eyes narrowed accusingly at the blonde.

It would have been cute on the ten year-old's face, had he not had that same expression for every hour of the last two days. Even when Naruto was sleeping, he could feel Negi's glare boring into his back.

"Seriously, Negi? You knew Nekane's had a crush on me for years. So stop staring at me." Naruto said defensively.

Negi kept glaring at him. Around the two, crowded together, were several girls on their way to Mahora. They giggled behind their hands and whispered to each other about the two boys sitting on the train.

"Negi, seriously, stop staring at me like that, it's creeping me out."

Negi finally relented, sighing and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "She's my sister, Naruto-nii."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the red-head questioningly. "Actually, she's your cousin."

Negi's head snapped around, fixing the blonde with an angry glare.

"**Ding! Mahora Academy, Last stop! Make sure to be on time for class, everyone who is late will get a yellow slip!"**

The door slid open and the girls all suddenly moved in a mass. In the confusion, Negi was swept up and away from Naruto. "Wah! Nii-san, help!"

"Oh for god's sake," the blond muttered, trying to chase after him. "Surround by girls in short skirts and tight shirts and all he wants is to be pulled out. Where did I go wrong?"

However, the crowd was too thick and forceful to move properly; quite a few times the Uzumaki found himself being squashed uncomfortably in the throng. As uncomfortably as a man being pressed on by girls, that is.

After a minute or so of gentle pushing, he stumbled out of the train, panting, only to run face-first into something soft, yet nice and firm at the same time. "Hey, watch yourself," said a vaguely disgruntled voice.

Blushing, Naruto realized that he had run straight into the nicely-shaped skirted rear of a black-haired girl in a school uniform. Fortunately, she didn't look too bothered by having a man land his face on her ass. "Heh, sorry," he said sheepishly, "Couldn't see where I was going."

"Mm." She only looked at him from heavy-lidded purple eyes. He couldn't tell if she suspicious of him, or just sleepy. Either way, she seemed to recognize him. "You look familiar," she said, leaning in to look closely at him, "Like, really familiar."

He smiled easily. "Really? Not many people have said that to me before, least of all a cute girl like yourself." He held out his hand, "Uzumaki Naruto."

Lazily, she shook it, smiling back. "Jenna Gloma. Don't think cheap compliments like that help." Inwardly she balked. _So that's who he reminded me of! Stupid me!_ "Now, if you told me my ass was nice, I might be happier."

Naruto opened his mouth, only to pause and close it. "Wait...I'm looking for my younger brother. You didn't happen to see a little redhead with a green suit with a wrapped-up staff go by, did you?"

"I might have," she said unconcernedly, scratching her cheek. She stopped, suddenly feeling more awake. "Actually...wait, yeah I saw 'im. If you go..." she waved vaguely in a certain direction, "That way, you'll find him with an orange-haired girl with bells and a brunette."

"You just don't stop, do you Negi?" the blond muttered to himself, "Right, thanks Jenna-chan! See you 'round!" He ran off.

Behind him, Jenna pouted and looked at her backside, rubbing it. "...It's not _that_ bad, is it?" she asked herself.

Naruto weaved through the crowd, spotting Negi just in time to see him be hauled into the air by a girl with orange hair in pigtails, bells attached to the tails. _Asuna?_

"I DARE YOU SAY THAT TO MY FACE AGAIN, BRAT!"

Her voice stampeded over the noise, and Naruto's face gained a dead-pan look. _Yep, definitely Asuna._ "Hey, orenji-chan! Can you set my otouto down?"

His voice drew her attention, as well as the girl standing next to her. She was about the same height, with long brown hair with short bangs, the fringes just brushing above her amber colored eyes. Asuna, as stated before, had long orange hair in pigtails held together by clips with bells on them. She had heterochromia, with one eye being deep blue and the other being green.

Both of the girls blushed under Naruto's intense blue gaze, though Asuna's was colored partially by anger.

"And just who the hell are you?!" She shouted at him angrily.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her tone, but answered evenly. "I'm the overprotective brother of the kid in the suit, Ms. Temper."

"I would listen to him if I were you, Asuna-kun." This voice came from a tall man with white hair and stubble on his cheeks, his hands casually slung in the pockets of his pants.

Asuna dropped Negi unceremoniously, an embarrassed blush making her face bright red. "Takamichi-sensei!"

Naruto tilted his head in respect. "Hey, Takahata. You know the angry one?"

Takahata adjusted his glasses and smiled slightly. "Yes, she's Asuna Kagurazaka, a student of mine from last year. That's Konoka Konoe, the dean's granddaughter and another of my former students." His smile widened as his eyes fell on the red head rubbing his rear-end. "Hey, Negi-kun! It's been awhile since my last visit. Good to see you again!"

Negi smiled and shook Takahata's extended hand. "Hi Takahata-sensei! It nice to see you too!"

The white-haired man waved a hand over the vista of Mahora. "What do you think of Mahora, my friends? It's quite a place, eh sensei's?"

Asuna gaped and Konoka peered confusedly at both Naruto and Negi, while said red-head was pulling on his brother's sleeve. "What does he mean by "sensei's" Nii-san?"

Naruto gave Takahata an exasperated look over his glasses. "Taka-baka, I've been keeping it a surprise for three days! Don't give away the game now!"

Negi poked the blonde in the side. "What have you been keeping secret, Naruto-nii?"

Naruto sweated inwardly and cast about desperately for a distraction, landing on Asuna. "Nothing, Negi! So, what was it you said to Ms. Angry over there that pissed her off so bad?"

The young mage shrugged innocently. "I just said her love was unrequited." He looked confused as Naruto chuckled and shook his head. "What? It is."

Asuna's temper got the better of her (again) and she grabbed Negi by the collar and pulled him into the air. "I hate annoying little brats, especially little fleas like you!"

Naruto's sharp eyes noticed a loose hair of Asuna's tickle Negi's nose, and, having lived with Negi for quite awhile, knew what was coming. He laid a hand on Konoka's shoulder and subtly pulled the blushing girl away from the line of fire, just in time.

With a mighty "ACHOO!" Negi lost control of his wind magic, letting loose a gust of wind strong enough to blow Asuna's clothes away, leaving her out in the open, wearing only a set of red underwear with cute little bears on it.

Her earsplitting screech could be heard from miles out as she vainly tried to cover herself up with her arms.

Taking pity on the girl, Naruto shed his suit jacket and handed it to Asuna. But not without a parting shot.

"Very fierce."

…

_(Somewhere…)_

"...So yeah, we're dealing with an Uzumaki Naruto," Jenna told her friend Hailey.

"No way!" she groaned, "Another one?" Hailey Petra was much taller than her friend, with messy brown hair and a cap. Most of her height came from her long, powerful legs, which had a thick scar on one thigh. Unlike Jenna, she was more likely to worry about unexpected things. "So, what do we do about him? What's he like?"

Jenna shrugged. "Easygoing, flirty...kinda like mine, really. There's probably something different about him, but I wasn't exactly able to keep his attention."

The brunette sighed. "At least you kept his attention period."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"...I don't know."

_(Later…)_

Asuna now wore her gym uniform, a pair of tight shorts and t-shirt, and Naruto had his jacket back. They, along with Negi, Konoka and Takahata stood in front of the dean's desk.

The dean himself was a very strange looking old man. Konoe Konoemon had a head shaped like peanut, eyebrows that draped to his chin and a beard to match. His eyes seemed to be closed, but he might've just been squinting really hard and got stuck like that, no one really knows.

"Welcome to Mahora, Naruto-sensei, Negi-sensei! I see you've already met my granddaughter, Konoka. Say, Naruto, would you care to arrange an omiai for-"

Out of nowhere, Konoka pulled a large mallet, slamming it forcefully onto Konoe's head. "Oh grandpa!"

Asuna slammed her hands on the desk loudly, drawing the attention of the room. "What the hell is going on?! Why do you keep calling the blonde 'sensei'? And what's a little kid doing here?!"

"Calm down, Asuna-kun," Takahata pleaded, turning to Naruto. "I believe it's time to tell them what's going on, eh Naruto-kun?"

The tall blonde teen nodded in assent. "Negi, you remember how your assignment was to be an Assistant Teacher?"

The ten-year-old nodded, confusion easy to read on his face. Naruto smiled brightly and wrapped an arm around Negi's head. "That's because you're going to be the Assistant Teacher to me!"

Takahata stepped forward with a smile. "That's right. As of today, Naruto and Negi are going to be the teachers of 2-A instead of myself."

The dean laughed his booming Santa-laugh while Asuna looked horrified. Konoka blushed as she examined her new teacher. Naruto was tall, around six foot, with tanned skin and a warm presence. His cerulean eyes glinted with mirth and mischievousness, and the three whisker marks across each cheek gave him a feral yet handsome look. With the grin crinkling his eyes, he was undeniably handsome to Konoka. To her, his face was suddenly surrounded by sparkles and hearts.

She was pulled from her daydreaming by Asuna's voice ringing out through the office. "WHAT THE HELL?! I don't want some blonde pervert and his snot-nosed brother teaching me! Is that even allowed?" Her face was red with anger and steam seemed to rise from her head.

Naruto frowned at the hot-head. "You say that like being blonde is crime."

Takahata raised his hands in a placating manner. "Asuna-kun, calm down. Naruto-kun is considered a genius for completing the entire Academy curriculum in one year, and Negi is one of the youngest graduates in the history of the Academy. You're in good hands."

Asuna tried to find another excuse, clearly grasping at straws. "Sensei, even if you tell me that…"

Konoemon laughed loudly. "Hohoho! It seems like you will have quiet the year, Naruto-kun! But I must know," His voice lost its jocularity and became very serious. "Will you take the job? This job will be very difficult, even for a two geniuses. If it is too much for you to handle, than I will send you home, no second chances."

Negi began to sweat, clutching his staff nervously. A familiar hand descended on his shoulder, and he looked up into the warm eyes of his brother. "We can do this, Negi-kun. Remember what I always say?"

"'You can do anything if you have the will to follow through.'" Naruto smiled at the oft-repeated phrase as Negi's eye gained a determined steel. "Let's do it, nii-san."

They both turned at nodded to the dean, echoing each other. "We'll take the job."

Konoemon smiled and laughed. "Very well!"

Asuna jumped forward with her arms making an X as a buzzer sounded from somewhere. "Hold on! Am I the only one who thinks that having to kids teach us is weird?"

Naruto's eyes shimmered strangely at the word 'kid', but only Konoemon caught it. "I'm older than you, Hot-Head. Don't make assumptions Quick-Draw, they'll bite you on the ass later on."

The dean clapped his hands, drawing attention to himself. "Class is in five minutes, so I'll end this here. Allow me to introduce you to Shizuna Minamoto, your guidance counselor!"

The door opened and Naruto being the closest to it, was hit in the knees by it and nearly fell over, had it not been for the chest cushions of Shizuna Minamoto that caught his face in their soft embrace.

Naruto's face turned red, as did Shizuna's, and he hurriedly pulled himself from her chest and apologized. "Excuse me Shizuna-san, I didn't mean to be so forward. Right now, at least."

The guidance counselor was still blushing, but giggled lightly. "That's alright, Naruto-sensei."

Konoemon coughed behind his hand, vainly trying to hide his perverted giggle. "If there is anything you two have trouble understanding, just ask Shizuna-kun."

The green-haired woman looked over Negi and Naruto, giving them a small wink and a smile. "Pleased to meet you two."

"Ah, one more thing!" The dean pointed a hand into the air very suddenly. "Asuna-kun, Konoka-chan, Negi will be staying with you two for the time being. Naruto-kun, I have the address of your roommate right here."

As the dean handed Naruto a slip of paper, Asuna slammed her hands on the dean's desk. "What?! Why is the little brat staying with us?"

Konoka patted Negi on the head, like one would a puppy. "Oh come on, Asuna! It'll be like having a puppy!"

Negi looked undecided on whether or not to be confused or insulted about being analogized to a puppy.

The orange-head yelled at Konoka, "I told you I hate kids!"

The dean chuckled behind his beard. "Hohoho, you get two get along now."

The dean waved them off as the bell was about to ring, and they left Takahata behind with the old man.

As they walked Asuna seemed to steam more and more, before she finally burst out, "I'm not sharing a room with anyone, especially a little brat like YOU! See you later, sensei's!"

Konoka shot them an apologetic look before chasing after the orangette.

Naruto shot Shizuna a questioning glance. "Is she permanently pissed off, or what?"

The mint-haired woman shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Asuna-chan's always been a little…brash. But she's a good person, really."

Shizuna handed Naruto a ledger that was labeled 2-A. "This is the class roll, it has all of current students in it, so make sure to memorize their names, okay?"

Negi and Naruto stood outside the classroom, eyeing the door. Negi twisted his staff nervously in his hands, while Naruto noticed how the door was propped open

slightly. _Someone's set up a trap there, I just know it__,_ thought the blond. He turned to Negi and smiled. "Assistant teachers first, I think."

"E-eh?" Negi looked flustered, "Well, if you say so, Nii-san..." He opened the door and got hit by an eraser that had been jammed above the door. The eraser made him stumble in surprise and trip over a wire, landing his head directly in a bucket, which then got hit by suction cup arrows that had been setup earlier. Negi rolled into the front desk from the force of his trip, bucket over his head and arrows stuck to his butt. The class had been expecting whoever it was that had come in to be caught by the trap; however, they didn't think it would be some innocent kid.

Naruto stuck his head in and grinned wickedly at them. "Someone needs to be less obvious," he said reprovingly, making Fuka and Fumika Narutaki pout and blush respectively. Stepping over the wire, he picked Negi up off the floor and yanked the bucket off.

Negi pouted at Naruto, his arms crossing over his chest childishly. "You did that on purpose, Naruto-nii!"

The blonde teen didn't try to deny it, just ruffling Negi's hair playfully. "I always tell you to be more aware of your surroundings, otouto. So anyway..." he said calmly, smiling in a more natural fashion at the room and caused a few blushes throughout the room, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'll be your teacher this year. This little red-head, who fell for those obvious pranks, is my little brother and assistant teacher for 2-A, Negi Springfield. Nice to meet you all, please take care of us."

They both bowed, and by the time they looked up, almost the entirety of the class was crowded around them, asking rapid-fire questions.

"Where are you guys from?"

"How old are you?"

"Are those whiskers real?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Negi was beginning to look a bit overwhelmed as Shizuna popped her head back into room. "Girls!" She called out over the din. "Let the sensei's breathe! One question at a time!"

One of the girls, a red-head who was fairly curvaceous stalked up to Naruto with a hand-held recorder. "I'm Kazumi Asakura, top reporter for the Newspaper Club! Introduce yourself, sensei!"

Negi adjusted his glasses nervously and bowed again. "My name is Negi Springfield. I'm ten years old, and I was born in Wales. I like books, learning from Naruto-nii and visiting my best friend Anya. I dislike people who are mean and tart things."

Near the front of the class, a girl with long blonde hair stared at Negi with stars in her eyes. _He's like the otouto I've always wanted! So cute and polite!_

Naruto adjusted his glasses in a manner extremely similar to Negi, or maybe vice-versa, and smiled, inwardly chuckling at the wave of red that rode over the room. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I'm seventeen years old. I was born in this one location, near this other place with these things nearby, and this stuff all around, with these people who did things."

Naruto's smile turned into a mischievous smirk at the confused and pouting girls. "I enjoy nature-walks, sunsets and training my body to it's peak. I dislike obtuse people and those with stubborn beliefs, even in the face of proof. I hope to get to know you all better over my tenure as your teacher."

His eyes took in the reactions to his name. Those without any knowledge of magic wouldn't know who he was wouldn't react; as it were, a few did.

A girl with brown hair held up on one side in a ponytail, leaning what looked like a kendo stick against her desk stiffened almost imperceptibly, her dark brown eyes locked onto him with burning intensity.

Near the middle of the class, a dark-haired girl with red hair-ties narrowed her light red eyes on him, a question appearing within them.

At the very back, a small blonde girl who looked about as old as Negi sitting next to a green-haired girl with antennas for ears growled quietly, a hateful glare focused on the blonde and the red-headed sensei's.

The tall blonde girl from earlier stepped in front of the rest of the class, her eyes sparkling. "I'm Ayaka Yukihiro, Iincho of class 2-A! Please take good care us!"

Naruto waved a hand and bade them to take their seats. "Let's get on with lesson. I believe you were in chapter 12?"

Negi cracked open the book as Naruto went to the chalkboard to write down the examples, only to find that there wasn't any chalk. Before he could even turn around to ask the class about it, Ayaka had appeared in front of him, holding a box of high-quality chalk.

The happy face she had almost creeped Naruto right the fuck out, but he took the chalk with a smile.

The door opened and Shizuna stuck her head in again, looking contrite. "Sorry for the interruption, sensei's, but you have a few new students joining class 2-A."

She moved aside and let two girls into the room. One had long black hair and purple eyes that held a strange crystalline quality, and fair skin. Her eyes were half-lidded, as if she might fall asleep at any moment. It was the girl who's ass Naruto had run into earlier.

Next to her was a girl with brown, messy hair, that looked windblown; she had long, toned legs clad in shorts instead of the regulation skirt, showing a scar she had on one thigh. She also had a squashed-looking cap over her hair.

Naruto smiled at them welcomingly. "Welcome to class 2-A. Please, introduce yourselves; likes, dislikes, that sort of thing."

The girl with the purple eyes gave a lazy half-wave. "Hi all. The name's Jenna Gloma. I like sleeping and eating rock candy, and I don't like people who wake me up without a good reason, and people putting things near my mouth while I sleep."

The other girl bowed shortly. "Hello, my name is Hailey Petra. I like running, sand and ice cream. I don't like being forced to sit still, landslides and being called a liar. Please take care of me."

As they walked to their assigned seats, Naruto's thoughts raced. _They aren't human…they don't even feel remotely like a human…what are they doing here?_

The lesson began with Negi reading from the book and Naruto writing the examples on the blackboard.

Asuna narrowed her eyes and subtly flicked a piece of eraser at Negi. When he didn't react, she flicked another, and another.

Unknown to her, Negi had a magical barrier surrounding him that deflected most projectiles, and so didn't even notice her increasing anger or the pieces of eraser lying around the desk.

…

_(Later…)_

Naruto and Negi sat on a bench outside, enjoying the bento boxes Naruto had made earlier that day.

The blonde teen looked over the register, memorizing the names and faces of the girls in his class. He was now wearing a blue shirt and a black sports jacket with gold buttons, his previous attire having been blown off by Negi earlier.

_(Flashback!)_

_It seemed that Asuna's dislike of Negi was easy to build up, because an hour into class, she complained loudly about how no one else but her seemed to find the fact that a teenager was teaching them strange, not to mention a ten-year-old kid._

_She had grabbed Negi by the collar (again) and demanded that he stop playing whatever prank he was pulling. Her shaking had loosened some of her hair, and it tickled Negi's nose (again), and he was about to sneeze (again), when Naruto had pushed Asuna out of the way, taking the burst of air in her place._

_He was taller than Asuna, only taking the blast to his chest, which shredded his jacket and shirt, leaving him bare from the waist up, except for his green gem necklace._

"_Negi, otouto…you owe me another suit jacket." He had deadpanned to the contrite red-head._

_Behind him, the entire class was fixated on his well-muscled back; or, more precisely, the large tattoo that was spread across it._

_It was a large black raven, it's wings reaching across his shoulder blades. Every feather was rendered in loving detail, looking almost real, as if it would hop off of his back and fly away._

_Clutched in it's talons was a Celtic knot, made of four Infinity Symbols interlocked._

_Inside of an empty space in the raven's body, there was a simple kanji tattooed in dark, scintillating purple ink:_

_Eien. Eternal._

_Naruto turned to the class, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, doing interesting things to his muscles, something a certain perverted Mangaka noticed readily. "Sorry about that, a strange wind seems to have blown away my top. I'll be back shortly."_

_As he left, whispers broke out between the classmates, most now talking about the 'bad boy' side of their previously just handsome/intelligent sensei._

_Hailey and Jenna shot each other a knowing look, one completely missed by everyone else._

_(End Flashback!)_

Naruto looked up as he heard heavy steps coming from a staircase that had no safety rails. The footsteps came from a purple haired girl who always seemed to be blushing whenever Naruto looked at her. It was extremely cute and endearing.

"Hey, that's number 27, Miyazaki Nodoka! She could fall over if she's not careful!" Negi said with worry in his tone.

As if jinxed by Negi's proclamation, Nodoka began to wobble alarmingly, a cry of surprise coming from her mouth as she fell off of the stairs.

Naruto was up and racing across the ground to Nodoka before she had fallen off, appearing to have vanished to the untrained eye. With a leap that took him into the air, he caught Nodoka in his arms, landing lightly due to Negi casting a quick wind spell to slow his descent. He pulled the purplette close to his chest cradling her as he bent over, her books raining down around them, a few bouncing off of his back.

Once the heavy paper hail had stopped, Naruto stood up, setting the slightly dizzy Nodoka on her feet. "Are you alright, Miyazaki-san?"

The bookworm noticed just then that a specific someone had saved her from certain injury, and almost all of the blood in her body rushed to her face. "H-hai, N-Naruto-sensei…" She whispered breathily.

Naruto gave her a kind smile and helped Nodoka pick up her books, and deciding to save her from potentially dangerous situations, took most of the books and began to escort her to her destination.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Asuna dragged Negi away, presumably having seen the junior mage's wind spell. He chuckled to himself, knowing what Negi would try to do, and how Asuna would react.

"KYAAA!"

There it was.

…

_(Later…)_

Naruto and Negi were leaving the teacher's lounge, having planned out tomorrow's lesson.

The older blonde nudged Negi with a grin. "So, what do you think, otouto? A lot of cute girls in our class. Thinking about getting a girlfriend?"

Negi frowned at his nii-san. "That's what you do, ero-nii-san. I'm only ten! I want to become Magister Magi before I think about relationships."

Naruto's grin widened with added mischievousness. "And Anya's promised herself to you."

"Yeah, she said she would wait for me…" A bright red blush suffused Negi's face, just then realizing what he had inadvertently revealed. "How did you know that?!" He shouted loudly, pointing at Naruto with an accusing finger.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow and smirked. "Who do you think convinced her to tell you about her feelings?"

Negi gaped at Naruto in shock. His expression sent the blonde teen into a rictus of laughter, clutching his sides and nearly falling on the floor. "Thinking back on it, I guess it makes sense," mumbled the redhead.

"Heh. Well, your dedication is certainly admirable!" the blond chuckled, ruffling his brother's hair as they reached the door of their classroom. "Especially around a bunch of beautiful girls."

"You first," said Negi, eyeing it distrustfully.

Naruto only laughed. "Learned your lesson, I see."

The decade-old mage glared at him, one eye twitching. Naruto checked the door for pranks, noticing the slight dip on the top where someone had placed a bucket of water, a trip-wire strung across the door at ankle-height.

Smirking to himself, Naruto motioned for Negi to stand back, before he kicked the door.

The wooden portal swung open rapidly, dropping the bucket onto the trip-wire, then banged off of the wall and closed as four paintballs launched by previously set-up slingshots splattered over the wood.

The door swung open again, this time admitting Naruto and Negi into the room, where the entirety of class 2-A, along with Takamichi and Shizuna, waited for them.

A banner was strung across the ceiling with words 'Welcome to Mahora!' written on it.

Naruto grinned foxily as the Narutaki twins gaped in shock. "I'm not cleaning this up, just so you know."

The rest of the girls cheered, "Welcome to Mahora, Sensei's!"

Naruto and Negi joined the party, mingling with the students and learning more about them. For instance, Chao Lingshen ran a restaurant with Satsuki Yotsuba, Ku Fei and Chachamaru Karakuri called _Chao Bao Zi_. They also sold ramen, which was a damn good thing Naruto's opinion.

Outwardly, she appeared quite cheerful, if a bit vapid but incredibly intelligent, but it was only with Naruto's years of training that he noticed she was nervous around him.

At one point, Negi had run up to Takahata and asked him what he though about Asuna, holding a handsign commonly used in conjunction with mind reading, then running back to Asuna, who blushed and dragged him out of the room.

Nodoka approached Naruto nervously, holding a slip of paper in her hand tightly, urged on by her friend, Haruna Saotome. "N-Naruto-s-sensei?"

The blonde teen turned to the purplette with a bite of nikuman in his mouth, which he swallowed quickly. "Nodoka-chan! What can I help you with?"

She appeared to be right on the edge of fainting, but managed to hand Naruto a rumpled and slightly sweaty coupon. "Um…a-about th-that incident er-earlier…you saved me, please take this a sign of my gratitude!" Nodoka rushed out the last part fairly fast.

Naruto examined the paper, finding it slightly hard to read due to all of the moisture. "What is it?" He asked politely.

She began to poke her fingers together, hiding her eyes under the fringe of her hair. "It-it's a book c-certificate, good for a-any b-book at the library."

He smiled at her softly, pocketing the coupon. "Well thank you, Nodoka-chan. I'm glad to help one of my students, especially one as cute as you."

Her face could have been seen from space, had she been outside. Her friend herded her away, teasing 'Honya-chan' about making an early move on the blonde sensei.

Naruto scanned the room, noticing a lock of red and orange. He remembered seeing Asuna take Negi out of the room for some reason, and went to investigate.

He found them, a little ways away from the room, Asuna with her hair down (a look he noticed that worked for her) with her arms around Negi, who looked mightily confused about what was going on as she bent to kiss him, is what it seemed like.

Naruto heard the shuffling of multiple feet and recognized them as female steps, most likely 2-A coming to find Naruto and Negi.

As the class rounded the corner, Naruto acted quick and replaced Negi with himself in Asuna's arms.

Naruto was a good ways taller than Negi, so when Asuna was leaning over, practicing her confession for Takahata, she met his lips quite heavily.

Her heterochromic eyes shot open and met Naruto's cerulean, before the overwhelming feelings emanating from his lips made her eyes flutter closed.

_Why do his lips…feel so familiar?_ She thought to herself, before the sound of a camera going off yanked her from her reverie.

Asuna looked up at the whole of class 2-A, quite of few of the girls there glaring at her jealously, one being Kazumi Asakura with camera in hand.

She blushed heavily and fled back to the classroom, leaving a slightly bemused Naruto staring after her.

_(After the party)_

The party had gone on for a while, but finally young Negi had become tired, leaving a flustered Asuna and an amused Konoka to carry him back to their dorm to sleep. Naruto had left alone, in search of his own dorm. "This school seems like a nice place," he said aloud to himself. He chuckled, "Those girls are really something, all of them. All unique and special in their own ways…Although..." the faces of Jenna and Hailey flashed in his mind's eye, "Those two...what are they?"

"Why not ask us yourself?" A voice said from behind him.

Naruto whipped around. What he saw made him freeze in shock. Where before, there was night-darkened paved walkway, the young man found himself standing in a dirt street, with the sun shining down on him. He recognized the buildings around him. _This is...Konoha? How! _A movement caught his eye and he looked down. There were the two girls he'd just been thinking about, standing before him seemingly without care that they'd summoned his old home in front of him.

"You know, we actually did mean to talk to you," said Jenna nonchalantly as his eyes tightened, "But we didn't really know how to approach you. So, our boss said this would get your attention. You focused yet?"

"You..." Naruto shook out, looking pale. "How the hell do you know about...about this place?" With a flash of heat and light, a rough sword shape appeared in his hand, glowing white hot and crackling slightly, which he held in his left hand across his front defensively. In his right, a large, light blue Desert Eagle appeared, carvings decorating the barrel, while two rods were attached to the bottom, a current of electricity flowing between them on occasion. "Who the hell are you?" he asked through gritted teeth, "_What_ are you?! I knew you weren't human from the beginning, but how do you know about Konoha?!"

"Yo, chill out, sensei," the dark-haired girl said lazily, looking completely unbothered by the arms he was wielding. His eye twitched at her nonchalance. "If we wanted to hurt you, we would've already started fighting. No need to go and start one just 'cause you're at home."

Rather than relaxing, the blond tensed, his finger tightening on the trigger as his thumb cocked the hammer back with a heavy click.

This time it was Hailey who spoke up. "Don't think that'll help you," she said bluntly, "What would the Headmaster say if you were to shoot two students? Besides, even if no one's around to see you shoot, the bullet won't reach either of us. So **put that away so we can explain ourselves!"**

There was no real change in her voice, but all of a sudden, Naruto found himself lowering his weapons against his will. He gritted his teeth and tried to raise them again, but his body would not move that way. "Fine. Again, who are you people? Moreover, what are you?" He asked tensely.

"Well, you certainly get to the point, don't you?" mumbled Jenna, "Let's do the same: we're Gormim. The Meddlers from In-Between."

Intrigued despite himself, Naruto asked, "In between…what?"

"Everything," said Hailey, though she paused, "...perhaps some imagery might help. You can travel through worlds, right? It doesn't matter how you do it," she said, noticing how he stiffened, "But you at least know that there are multiple Universes." She waited for him to relax (if slightly) and nod in confirmation before continuing, "Imagine that each Universe is a bubble, with all the others squeezed up against it, right? Okay, now imagine that, in the area where two of them meet, there's a tiny space, directly in the middle. That's where we come from, a Universe in between all others: the Centerplane. As for what we are exactly, we are a race known as Medians. The Gormim are a special group of Medians who go into 'side' worlds, either to gather power or to just interfere with a story and do things."

"No way..." Naruto murmured his eyes flickering rapidly, "I always knew there were more like me, it wasn't possible that I was the only one…but so many in one place, and in a group? Damn..." He fell silent, clearly thinking to himself. Finally, his eye landed on them, and he asked, "So what do you want with me?"

Jenna snorted. "Well, apparently your world-jumping-thing makes you go in and out of the Centerplane. Our boss, Storia, is getting pretty annoyed by it, plus the fact that you're what we call an 'Unknown,' so he sent us to make contact."

"I'm only in-between worlds for a second at most." The Uzumaki deadpanned. "You have a boss?" he asked, "You seem a bit young for this."

"So do you," Hailey pointed out meaningfully.

"Yeah, but I'm awesome like that," Naruto had to admit that they had a point there. "So, who's this boss of yours?"

"Eh, you haven't heard of him," said Jenna, "He's called Storia Daisho, the Narrator."

He frowned. "Why's he-"

"Because he writes stuff and knows pretty much everything," the Gloma interrupted, "Hell, he probably already knows that we've met you and stuff. I guess that means we don't have to report to him, do we?"

The brunette gave her a dirty look. "What do you think?"

"Man, fuck that."

A tick mark pulsed on her temple. "Do you want me to call Mason?"

"...Not really."

Naruto looked between them, nonplussed. "So...what are we going to do here?" he finally asked.

Hailey shrugged. "Our orders, for lack of better word, were to make contact with you and inform you of our existence. We would be willing to become allies, of course, in helping to avert some of the bigger disasters of this world's story."

"Or even being comic reliefs," added Jenna in the same beat, making both Hailey and Naruto sweat-drop.

"So why contact me now? I've been Hopping between dimensions for years." Naruto asked.

Hailey shrugged in a manner that conveyed she didn't have the answers. "We don't know. No one really knows what Storia thinks."

A ball made of cloudy glass hopped off of the ground and into Jenna's hand, while Konoha wavered and disappeared around them, leaving them on the grounds of Mahora, which they hadn't left.

The sword in Naruto's hand dispersed into ashes that blew away with the wind, while his gun vanished. "I don't know about best friends, ladies, but I'm willing to work with you." He gave them a nod, and began to walk into the darkness, towards his dorm. "It's late, and we have class tomorrow. I don't know if you sleep, but I do. See you two tomorrow."

Hailey shot Jenna an accusing look. "Do you always have to be so lazy? We DID just make contact with a potentially powerful ally, who could have easily become an enemy. Can't you show some alacrity?"

Jenna shrugged her shoulders half-way, before yawning. "Whatever. I'm tired."

"You're always tired."

"I know, you'd think I'd get tired of it, but don't. I really, really don't."

…

_(With Naruto…)_

The blonde teen knocked on the door to the dorm he was sharing with a student of his class, his thoughts racing over the information he had received from the two…_Gormim. Weird word._

The door cracked open, allowing a girl with silver hair and amber eyes to look out of it. "…?"

Naruto smiled. "Hello. Zazie Rainyday, right? Did you get the message from the dean about me staying here?"

"…" Zazie nodded quietly.

"Well, thank you for letting me stay with you, Zazie-chan. I'll do my best to not be a bother."

Zazie blushed at the familiar suffix as she opened the door wider, allowing Naruto to enter.

The moon shone down on Mahora, the school entirely unaware of the changes that would be coming, heralded by a mysterious blonde who was much more than he seemed.

…

**A/N: Yes, I know. "Another story? You haven't updated your current stories in months, dude! WTF?"**

**The reason I haven't updated my stories is because of a decision, while hard to make, had to be made.**

**I'm pulling the plug on the BLACKLIGHT stories. BLACKLIGHT Ninja and the rewrite, along with BLACKLIGHT Titan and Shinigami will be deleted. Evolution of a Shinobi will be on hiatus until I can figure out how to make the character better.**

**It took me awhile to realize that I made a huge mistake with those stories. I took a character, Gary Stu in the utmost definition, whose original story wasn't even finished, made an ending for him that wasn't written, and then made other stories about him.**

**In all honesty, I felt like an idiot for doing that.**

**However, over the years I've been an author, I realized that my writing style, preference and flow is different than it was then.**

**Some people might be disappointed, but it is my prerogative as an author to get better and tell myself the hard truths to advance and evolve as an author.**

**Now, some answers to questions I KNOW will be asked; some preemptive answers:**

**Naruto is the teacher of 2-A instead of Negi because it wouldn't make sense. In this iteration, Naruto is as famous as Nagi was, and is considered a genius of an amazing magnitude, so it would make sense that he would teach 2-A instead of a ten-year-old. A mature ten-year-old, but still a child.**

**There will be no "Harem" for Negi, not at all, and no amount of flames or attempts at persuasion will change my goddamn mind about this. I know it's from Japan and weird shit like that is the norm there (in manga, anyways), but it doesn't make ANY goddamn sense for a ten-year-old (once again, a mature ten-year-old, but still a kid) to have 14-15 year old girls lusting after him like a bunch of Shotacons. In this story, he will be paired with Anya, no if, ands or buts about it. There will be some crushes on him, but they will be more of "He's such a cute kid!" (Like Ayaka) than "I want his children!"**

**You do not know how fucking creepy that last sentence was to type.**

**Also, another thing: Nodoka. Hinata's alternate dimension twin if ever saw one. What really rankles me, as a fan of the pairing (not a crazy fan; I don't care THAT much), is when a version of Naruto who was in love with Hinata disregards the fact that Nodoka is JUST. LIKE. HER.**

**Gimmie a f*%&ing break.**

**OR**

**TL;DR**

**No more BLACKLIGHT for awhile, if ever.**

**Naruto is the main character, thus the teacher, ****deal with it.**

**No Negi Harem 'cus it's fucking creepy; once again, ****deal with it.**

**Nodoka is with Naruto; for the last time, ****deal, With. It.**

**Last thing: Thank you NorthSouthGorem for your help, once again. You my bro, y'know? I think it's awesome that my story's in the realm of the CoG series.**

**Fuck. Yeah. Bro.**

**Keep Being Awesome,**

**-Soleneus.**


	2. Magic and Potions

Her dream started out like they mostly do; a romantic setting, this time a grassy hill over-looking the ocean. He was standing there, looking out over the sunset, handsome as ever, his white hair blowing in the wind.

She approached him nervously, carrying two cups of tea on a tray. _This is it! _ She thought to herself, _the day I confess to my crush! With the love potion I put in his tea, there's no way he can refuse me!_

She came closer, the soft shuffling of her feet in the grass alerting him to her presence. He turned to look at her, the sunlight glinting off of his glasses and into her eyes…

…and suddenly, there was no hill or sunset. There was a large fire burning in a circle of stones, a few logs strategically placed around it for sitting. Trees surrounded the area, the waning crescent moon high in the sky.

He sat on one of the logs, a deeply introspective look on his face; the light of the fire bathing his visage in warm light and flickering over his glasses. His cerulean eyes gazed into the fire with startling intensity, as if he was contemplating the very nature of the flames.

In her opinion, he had never looked more handsome.

She approached him slowly, two cups of tea rattling on the tray from her nerves. _This is it! _ She thought to herself, _the day I confess to my crush! With the love potion I put in his tea, there's no way he can refuse me!_

…_please Kami, don't let him reject my feelings…I don't think my heart could take it…_

One of her feet bumped into a log, making a hollow _thunk_ ring out through the clearing, breaking the silence like a sledgehammer against a crystal glass.

His eyes flickered from the fire to her face, mirth shining in those cerulean orbs she loved to get lost in.

"It's late, Asuna-chan. You should be resting." His deep voice, not deep enough to sound like a giant, but enough to give his words a low, almost sultry tone that caressed her ears like velvet issued from his soft lips quietly.

Her voice, on the other hand, seemed too high-pitched and squeaky, like squirrel being stepped on. "I-I c-couldn't sl-sleep." Repeatedly.

He smiled gently, the smile he only made for her, when she did something he found cute. "Late night tea does help you relax. Come sit with me, Asuna-chan." He patted the space to his immediate right softly.

Nervous and jittery, she sat next to him, the beginnings of a blush heating her cheeks. "I-I ma-made you s-some, N-Naruto-kun," She managed to stutter out, holding the tray out to him.

His smile became knowing, and his thin but strong fingers pulled one of the cups off of the tray. "Thank you, Asuna-chan."

They sat there for what seemed like hours, just sipping their tea and enjoying the ambient noises of the forest at night, watching the fire as it danced over blackened logs.

"You know, Asuna-chan," He commented lightly, draining the last dregs of his tea, "You didn't have to spike the tea."

Her anxiety jumped up several notches, and she began to tremble. She stiffened as his arm came up and wrapped around her shoulder, drawing her body closer to his.

"If you wanted to find out how I feel about you, Asuna-chan…all you had to do was ask." He whispered into her ear, his warm breath washing over her skin and making her spine tingle pleasurably.

"How…how do you feel about me?" She asked, gathering the vestiges of her courage.

He didn't answer, and she felt her heart crack…

…Until she heard his voice.

"_Underneath the moon, and_

_Underneath the night,_

_When you're with me,_

_The stars are so bright._

_Like promises, held in safety,_

_Waiting for the one to make it true…_

_Nothing matters more to me, than when I'm with you."_

She stared at him unabashedly. That was the first time she had heard him sing, and it was like magic had flowed out of every word.

He turned to her, their faces inches apart. Her heart began to beat wildly in her chest as his other hand rose up to her face, cupping her jaw tenderly. She leaned forward, feeling his breath on her lips, tingles of electricity racing through her body.

She expected her dream to end; they always did before she could kiss him.

But this time, their lips met, and it was as if she had been struck by a bolt of lightning. His lips were so soft and firm, gentle and caressing her own like a warm embrace from a lover.

Her hands rose to his shoulders, one settling on the back of his neck and holding on to the smooth skin, the other brushing through his soft, golden hair.

Their lips parted, just enough for him to speak. "Does that answer your question, hime?"

Asuna's eyes fluttered open, still feeling the warmth of Naruto's lips on her own and his body held tight against hers…

…Actually, she was holding a warm body, though it was smaller than Naruto's, and had red hair, wearing pajamas that had little gerbils dancing on them.

"KYYAAAH!"

Asuna's scream woke Naruto up, halfway across the campus. He looked around the room, searching for the source, when he remembered where Negi was sleeping. "Well that would certainly explain it." He said to himself, smirking.

"…?"

Naruto turned to see Zazie's sleepy amber eyes peeking out from under her blankets. "Don't worry about it, Zazie-chan. It was just someone screaming in terror."

She nodded sleepily and fell back asleep, cute little snores issuing from her slightly-parted lips.

Naruto smiled at her cuteness, before he pulled himself out of his bed and dressed in loose fitting pants, leaving his chest and back bare. Exiting the dorm, he searched around and found a clearing large enough for his morning exercises.

Closing his eyes, he drew on his energy and molded it to his will. With a firm stomp of his foot, six logs burst out of the ground, stopping at the height of six feet. One more stomp made the last log, this one growing to eight feet and having a single branch grow from the side, completely horizontal and smooth.

Naruto stretched his muscles and did some light calisthenics, before he jumped up and grasped the branch, beginning a set of pull-ups.

The following hour involved Naruto doing his pull-ups, vertical crunches with the bar being held under his knees, push-ups, jumping jacks, and all manner of muscular endurance and strength training.

The next hour, Naruto began to flow through different katas of different hand-to-hand styles, using the previous logs to beat upon, shattering them into clouds of splinters and wood dust at the end of every set.

With forty minutes to go until the bell, Zazie joined him outside, stretching and practicing her acrobatics and juggling for the Nightmare Circus. That was what she said, anyway. But she seemed to have always just looked away when he looked over his shoulder.

Zazie hit the shower first while Naruto made them a quick breakfast of egg sandwiches, while Zazie made them some fruit salad to go with it while Naruto showered.

They ate quickly and left the dorm, catching up to a fuming Asuna, a giggling Konoka, and an embarrassed Negi.

Asuna stomped up to Naruto in anger, pointing an accusing finger in his face. "Why didn't you tell me that Negi can't sleep without a sister-figure?!"

Naruto shrugged and smiled blankly. "Negi has to sleep with a sister-figure? Huh, I never noticed that." He leaned in and winked at her. "Probably because I'm a guy."

Steam began to rise from her head, as he smirked at her. Naruto turned to Konoka and smiled at her. "Good morning, Konoka-chan. I hope you slept well."

The brown-haired girl blushed prettily at the attention. "I did, Naruto-ku-sensei!" she tried to cut over her mistake, but a glance at Naruto revealed that he had caught it.

"There's no need to call me sensei outside of the classroom, Konoka-chan." He patted her on the shoulder and winked. "You can call me whatever you want, hime."

Asuna felt a bolt of jealousy shoot through her at her savior calling another girl 'hime'. She didn't even think about why she called him 'her savior' in her mind.

The group continued on their way to class, making it there about five minutes before the bell. Naruto and Negi took the time to set up for the lesson.

The rest of class 2-A began to stream in, some hanging out by each other's desks and talking, or sitting quietly and reading a book or finishing homework.

The bell finally rang, and the class stood, facing the front desk where Naruto was sitting. "Stand!" Nodoka called shakily. "B-Bow! Sit!"

Naruto smiled at the class and opened his book. "Good morning, class. Let's jump right in, shall we?"

Time passed rather quickly. The went through the book, using examples and writing things on the chalkboard, then calling on the class to translate passages from the book.

The only real trouble was Asuna, who seemed to suck at English…or any sort of academia, really.

"I warned you not to get on my bad side, you brat!" She shouted as she shook Negi by the collar, her hair coming loose and brushing Negi's nose.

The red-head's eyes rolled back, as he began to sneeze, Naruto's finger stopped him, a small magic cancelling spell dispersing the wind magic in Negi's nose, while also stopping him from sneezing.

The look on Naruto's face was one of exasperation. "Seriously, atsui-atama. How has shaking Negi worked out for you the last couple of times?"

Asuna blushed in embarrassment, letting Negi go. The bell rang for lunch, and the class began to file out, heading to a spot eat lunch that was already packed, or to buy lunch.

As Konoka filed out, Naruto called out, "Konoka-chan!"

The brunette spun on the spot, a blush coloring her face. "Y-Yes, sensei?"

He smiled softly at her, letting her know that she wasn't in trouble. "Come have lunch with me. There's something important we need to talk about. You're not in any trouble, don't worry."

A few of the girls left in class glared at Konoka jealously as Naruto stepped up to her and held his arm out for her to take. "Shall we, milady?" He asked in false snobbish tone.

Konoka giggled and replied in an equally fake voice, "Why thank you, good sir, we shall."

So they left the classroom, arm in arm. Naruto led the Konoe heiress around the campus, finally finding a spot underneath a tree that wasn't occupied.

As Konoka took out her lunch, Naruto cast a quick privacy spell over the area so they wouldn't be overheard. The brunette felt the magic and looked around, trying to find the cause of the strange feeling.

"So, Konoka-chan, what do you know about magic?" The blonde asked without preamble.

Konoka blinked blankly, giving Naruto a confused face. "You mean like fairies and unicorns?"

Naruto chuckled and shook his head. "No, I mean fireballs, demons, wands, potions, and spells."

She shook her head, still giving him that cutely confused look. "Should I?"

"Considering your grandfather, father and myself are all mages, probably." He acquiesced.

Konoka stared at him incredulously for a few seconds, before she began to laugh. As she laughed, Naruto stared at her with one eyebrow raised, a classic "are you done?" expression.

She wiped a few stray tears from her eyes and looking back at her sensei. "That's a good joke, Naruto-sensei, but-"

Her voice cut off as Naruto opened a hand and allowed a ball of fire to roar into existence right above it. With a flick of his wrist, the fireball extinguished and was replaced by a ball of water that rippled and shimmered, before freezing over into a globe of ice that shattered with a loud crack. In the place of the globe was a small seed, which grew right before her eyes, lengthening into a green stem and a bud, before the bud opened and a honey-colored orchid bloomed in his fingers, which he used to gently brush back her hair and place it behind her ear.

Konoka's twitching fingers reached up to the flower and caressed the petals, jumping slightly as they came in contact. "It's real?" She asked in a whisper.

Her wide, disbelieving honey eyes met his cerulean, shock prevalent on her face. "Why didn't they tell me?" Konoka asked in a hurt voice.

Naruto sent her a sad smile, taking off his glasses to look her directly in the eyes. "The world of Magic is not a very safe place, Konoka-chan. They did it to protect you, though it would ultimately be a useless endeavor, as you have a lot of magical power."

He reached out and picked her up easily, setting her in his lap and hugging her softly. "There are those people out there who would try to use your power for bad things, and that is one of the reasons why I told you this."

Naruto pulled back so he could meet her eyes. "I want to train you, Konoka-chan, to make you stronger, so you can stand against the ones who would try to use you. Do you want me to?"

Konoka sniffled and bowed her head, clearly thinking over the offer very hard. Her spine stiffened, and she looked up into Naruto's face, a raging inferno of determination burning behind her honey orbs. "I want to be strong! Please teach me, Naruto-sensei!"

Naruto chuckled and hugged her again, her own pale arms snaking around her shoulders and hugging him back. "You don't have to call me sensei outside of class, Konoka-chan."

She giggled into his shirt and squeezed him tightly.

…

Afterwards, they'd had lunch, with Naruto declaring that her cooking was far superior to his and demanding that she teach him how to make such wonderful onigiri.

They were now walking back to the main campus, enjoying the sights and sounds of Mahora.

"Naruto-sensei!" A voice called out from behind them, making them turn to see who it was, finding Nodoka being pushed by Haruna Saotome, a girl with greenish-black hair who was noted as a gossip-monger and a perverted mangaka.

"Can I help you, Haruna-chan?" Naruto asked with amusement, watching as Nodoka would glance at him and then quickly look away with a blush, while Haruna was eyeing his form in way that made him feel both scared and aroused; an odd combination he wasn't sure should be felt around a fifteen-year-old girl.

The mangaka pushed the purplette forward, almost right into Naruto. "Do you see anything different about Honya-chan?"

The bookworm flushed bright red as Naruto's eye roved over her face. "Ah! You got a haircut, Nodoka-chan! It looks very good on you." He commented.

Nodoka nearly fainted, it was only the fact that Haruna was holding her up kept her from falling down. The perverted mangaka brushed a few bangs off of Nodoka's face to show her deep blue eyes underneath. "I know, right? She's such a cute girl but she never shows her face!"

Naruto smiled. "Well you should, Nodoka-chan. You're a very cute girl." He said with a wink. Behind his back, Konoka shot an envious glare at Nodoka, while Haruna grinned.

The bookworm's mouth worked open and closed soundlessly as her face became dangerously red, before she fled rapidly, leaving Naruto, Konoka and Haruna in the dust.

"Sorry sensei!" The mangaka shouted apologetically as she chased after her friend.

Naruto chuckled at the antics of his students and continued back to campus with Konoka. As they reached the main path, right before the entrance, Negi zipped past them, holding something in the air and yelling for Asuna, who was about three meters in front of them.

"Asuna-san, Asuna-san! I did it, I made the love potion!" Negi yelled loudly, childlike exuberance obvious in his voice.

Asuna started yelling at Negi about something to do with the love potion while Naruto began to frown. "Wait, a love potion?"

Konoka looked up at Naruto curiously. "What does that do?"

The blonde scowled as Negi and Asuna began to wrestle over the phial. "It creates a field around a person that draws in the opposite sex through a form of subtle mind-control and lowering of the inhibitions. With someone who hates the target, they will lust after them, while someone who has feelings for the target will show it more, usually in the form of gifts, declarations of love and seduction." His scowl deepened as the two tried to force into the other's mouth. "They're also a Class-B controlled substance, illegal to make and sell without proper authorization and a license…and they're wrestling over it in broad daylight!"

Naruto upped the pace of his stride, reaching the two as they wrestled over the potion. "Hey!" He barked angrily, "What-hrrk!"

His shout had scared the crap out of Asuna and Negi, and in a terrifying example of synchronicity, jerked the same way and sent the open phial soaring through the air…

…And into Naruto's open mouth.

The phial hit the back of Naruto's throat and spilled the contents inside, and having been taken by surprise, Naruto swallowed the love potion.

The blonde mage pulled the phial out of his mouth and hacked, the impact hitting his uvula and making him gag.

"Ow! Damn it Negi! You know love potions are banned!" Naruto coughed and glared at the younger mage, and would have continued to rail at him, had it not been for the weight that became present on his back, along with the moderately sized breasts pressing against him.

He looked over his shoulder, seeing Konoka's blush-laden face inches away from his. "Oh, sensei…" She moaned breathily, her hands molding themselves to his muscular torso.

To Naruto's chagrin, the warning bell rang, and most of Class 2-A came up along the path. The first to see Konoka was Ayaka. "Konoka Konoe! That kind of behavior is totally unbecoming of a student and a teacher! You should remove yourself henceforth!"

Ayaka's eyes suddenly transformed into hearts as she knelt, and pulled a bouquet of red roses from an unidentifiable space on her person. "And allow _me_ to show my affection to you, Naruto-kun!"

The girls began to crowd around Naruto, grabbing at his muscles and rubbing themselves against him. He also felt one or two grab something that wasn't supposed to grabbed like that.

_Shit! _He thought to himself, _What did I do that last time this happened?_ Naruto tried to recall desperately as Chizuru Naba, the bustiest girl in class, grabbed his head and shoved it in between her breasts.

_How are they so soft?_ Naruto wondered before mentally slapping himself and trying to pull his head from the comfort of Chizuru's chest. _What did I do?!_

He managed to turn his head, just barely as Chizuru had a tight hold of his neck, so that instead of being in them, he was lying against them like pillows. He looked down into Zazie's amber lust-clouded eyes as she latched onto his arm like a limpet.

"…" She mumbled to him, almost moaning out the words. "…!"

All activity stopped as everyone stared at Zazie in shock and surprise. _Holy shit… _Naruto though, completely taken by surprise. _I didn't know she had such a dirty mouth!_

Meanwhile, Jenna frowned as the class gaped at Zazie. "She didn't even say anything! How could they hear her when she doesn't talk?"

She turned to Hailey to complain, instead finding the runner's face bright red. "Wait, you could hear her? How the fuck does that work? What did she say?"

Just thinking about what Zazie said made Hailey flush even more.

Taking advantage of the distraction provided by Zazie's lustful words, the blonde mage reached inside of his sleeve and withdrew a pinch of flash powder he kept there for emergencies, tossing it into the air and teleporting himself out of the grasps of 2-A.

The flash powder ignited in with a small bang and burst of light, making the girls cover their eyes. When their vision cleared, they began to search for the object of their affections, finding him running away into the building.

With a harmonious yet chilling cry of "Naruto-kun!" the girls began to chase after the blonde, leaving Asuna and Negi behind.

_Think, dammit, think! The only way to relieve the effects is unconsciousness, either by forced means like trauma (which I won't do, as that would mean hurting my students) or by orgasm._ Naruto shuddered at that thought. _Pervy thoughts! Bad ero-magi, focus! The love potion makes them act like crazy fangirls! Wait…crazy fangirls + Japanese physiology= I know what to do!_

Rounding a corner, Naruto acted quickly, banishing his coat and glasses to his personal pocket dimension than casting a shrinking spell on his shirt, making it uncomfortably tight, almost like a second skin. He turned and leaned against the doorway, waiting for the girls to catch up.

He did not have to wait long, the thundering stampede of girls rounded the corner at a head-long sprint.

To them, he looked like a model out of a fashion magazine, leaning against the doorway with a sexy, teasing smirk on his face, his shirt stretched across his muscles, doing exactly _nothing_ to hide them.

"Hello, ladies…" He drawled, his voice low and smooth like silk and chocolate. "I believe you were looking for me?"

With a small flex of his power, the shirt he wore was ripped into pieces, floating to the ground and leaving his chest bare to the eye.

With a quick application of a minor water spell and light spell, he now seemed to have sweat all over his chest, and the light made it seem like he was sparkling, like he had just come out of a pool on a sunny summer day.

In short, a fangirl's wet dream.

In addition to that, he sent out a wave of his own aura mixed with lust, something he called a 'Sexual Intent'.

Killing Intent was where a person, with the right amount of power, can focus a small amount of energy with their intent to murder someone and the illusions of horrific mutilation to terrify an enemy to either scare them off or put them off balance enough so that they wouldn't be able to react to an attack.

Sexual Intent was similar in many ways, though the 'murder' part was replaced by 'fuck senseless' and 'horrific mutilation' was replaced 'relentless pleasure'.

So, all of the girls caught in the wave felt amazing pleasure and had visions of the blonde sensei doing whatever they wanted to them, how they wanted it.

With a squeal he was sure broke the sound barrier, all of the girls collapsed, blushes and nosebleeds rampant among the crowd.

If there were any there who didn't have feelings for the blonde before, they sure did now.

With relieved sigh, Naruto dropped his smirk. _Now, I have to hide before I come across any more!_

He jogged down another hallway, and seeing a closet, yanked open the door and zipped inside, slamming it after him.

"Sensei?"

Naruto jumped in shock at the voice coming from behind him, turning around to see Asakura Kazumi standing up from her kneeling position over a trough of solution with cables and clamps hanging above it, with the room being bathed in red light.

It was a dark room.

And he was in it, with Kazumi, with no shirt on and the love potion still running through his system, though she didn't appear to be affected by it, thankfully.

"Are you alright, Naruto-sensei?" Kazumi asked worriedly, the blush on her face hidden by the room's lighting.

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Just being chased by horde of wild animals."

She shot him a curious look, but shook it off and focused back on her photos, trying to ignore the feeling of heat in her body. She vaguely noted Naruto kneeling next to her, looking over her work.

"Why do you still manually develop photos, Kazumi-chan? There are digital cameras." Naruto asked questioningly.

Kazumi shrugged, not noticing that she unbuttoned the top three clasps on her shirt. "It makes me feel like I really did the work, you know? I made these pictures, they're my creations, and I should take care of them."

Naruto smiled at the red-headed reporter. "That's a very mature and respectable mindset, Kazumi-chan."

Kazumi's face felt like it was burning from the inside out, the same with her body. Small pants came from her mouth as her hands undid more buttons, trying to relieve the heat emanating from her body.

Naruto didn't see any of this, as he was trying to identify a smell that had appeared out of nowhere, but the developing solution confused his nose. _It smells like…honey? Peach blossoms?_

And then it him; it was the smell of woman who was aroused.

He turned his head slowly, feeling hot breath on his neck, coming face-to-face with Kazumi, her eyes half-lidded and dull with lust, panting heavily.

Without warning, the reporter dived on him, crashing her lips against his and pushing him to the floor with her body, which she began to grind against him.

"Naruto-kun…I want it…" She moaned into his mouth between kisses, "I want you to take me…"

Her low, sultry voice made his body betray him, and she could feel, pressing their bodies together as if trying to mold them into one.

Naruto's thoughts raced as Kazumi shoved her tongue in his mouth. _Shit, I need to act quickly! The thing I did before won't work here, and I refuse to hurt her! That means the only option is…_

With an appreciative moan as his hands came up, Kazumi was unaware of his intentions as his hands gripped her thighs, finding the multitude nerve endings there and sending a pleasurable shock straight into them.

With a loud scream of absolute pleasure, Kazumi's back arched and her eyes widened as she came, hard.

Her scream tapered out and she slumped onto Naruto's chest, blacked out from over-exposure to pleasure, leaving Naruto with a hard problem and a wet stain where their crotches were.

"Looks like _someone's_ had some practice," said a teasing, yet lazy voice. Naruto whipped around, trying to hide his crotch, to find Jenna Gloma sitting on the table next to him with her legs crossed, "Relax, the potions don't work on Medians. Besides, I'm with one of your alternate selves, so I'm good on that front." She glanced down at his groin, which still hadn't gone down. "And that front too," she smirked.

Jenna had to hold in the laugh as Naruto, normally unflappable, blushed like school-girl with her first crush.

…

_(Later That Day…)_

After Naruto had cleaned himself up and pulled a shirt, his jacket and glasses from his pocket and gotten dressed, he buttoned Kazumi's shirt back up, but there was nothing else he would do, and decided to just live the effects.

Afterwards, Asuna had kicked down the door, followed meekly by Negi, and then tried to bludgeon him into unconsciousness with her feet.

Naruto caught her ankle in a firm grip and held it there, glaring into her heterochromic eyes with hard cerulean. "I've already purged the potion from my system, so there won't be any more lust-crazy girls chasing after me (behind him, Jenna scoffed in disbelief). However, I do have a question for you…"

He let her leg go and glared into her eyes. "What the hell did you need a love potion for?"

Asuna shivered at the feeling Naruto was exuding. "I-I needed it to c-confess to-"

He cut her off quickly, "That's not going to fly, Asuna. Love potions are illegal for a reason."

The sound of footsteps drew their attention to two new arrivals, Shizuna and Takahata, who arrived looking very worried.

"Naruto-kun, what's going on?" Shizuna asked worriedly, "We heard a loud scream and found the majority of Class 2-A passed out in the hallway with nosebleeds and smiles!"

Naruto sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I know…Negi somehow made a love potion for Asuna, they wrestled over it and they managed to make me drink it, though on accident. I knocked out the girls pretty quickly, so they should wake up thinking it was some sort of dream."

Takahata rubbed his temples in distress as Shizuna sighed and palmed her face in distress. "Well, the girls will find it strange, but we can make up some kind of excuse." Takahata said lowly, "But you, Asuna, Negi, will have to face punishment for this."

Asuna gaped in shock while Negi lowered his head shamefully. "What? Why me?!"

Shizuna gave the red-head a glare that seemed out of place on the normally smiling woman. "You convinced Negi to make the love potion, and almost caused an incident that could have exposed magic to a lot of people."

Negi wilted under the mint-haired guidance counselor's evil eye. "And you, Negi, for making a banned substance. You let your need to make friends override your common sense."

Takahata sighed and crooked a finger at the contrite pair. "Come on, kids. I'm going to take you to see the dean he'll be the one to decide your punishment."

The two followed Takahata with heads bowed and ashamed blushes on their cheeks, leaving Naruto and Shizuna behind.

"That was quite the close call," Shizuna commented lightly.

Naruto shot her a questioning glance. "What do you mean? I'm sure we've already established that this was close to revealing magic."

The mint-haired counselor smirked at him teasingly. "Kazumi-chan put a security camera in her dark room to make sure no one else steals her work. And it just so happens that security camera is hooked up to a television in my office…where I was eating during the potion incident…"

The blood drained from Naruto's face as he stared at Shizuna in horror. She stepped closer to him and trailed her hand softly down his chest, their faces mere inches apart. "I wonder…" She murmured quietly, "What would happen if I let people see a handsome blonde man make a girl scream in pleasure and pass out from the force of her orgasm by simply touching her?"

Naruto was now whiter than a ghost. He already had fan girls from his looks alone, add those with the fans for his adult novels with the tape…that would be Hell for him. He would never get _any rest ever again._

"Please don't," He whispered shakily, "I will do absolutely anything for you to _not show anyone that tape._"

Shizuna's lips quirked in a teasing smile as her eyes became half-lidded and cloudy. They were now practically touching noses. "_Absolutely anything I want?_ That's a big promise to make, Naruto-kun…"

She stalked around Naruto in a circle, trailing her hands over his muscles lightly, before she embraced him from behind, her hands fondling _(there was absolutely no other word for it)_ his chest as she rested her nose in the crook of his neck and her body molded to his back, she deeply inhaled his scent as her hands went lower and felt his abdomen.

"Maybe I should just keep the tape for myself…so I can watch it while I'm alone and imagine myself in Kazumi's position…and imagine what else would happen _afterwards_…"

Naruto was frozen, his body shaking and mouth gaping slightly as Shizuna's hands lowered even more and she placed soft, small kisses along his neck. "Or maybe…" She whispered lustfully into his ear, "I can just find out _now_…"

She kissed a pulse point behind his ear as her hands squeezed his crotch…and then she shook her head. "Nah," She said, "I think I'll just save the tape for now. You never know when you'll need blackmail with a powerful mage such as yourself."

Shizuna smiled sultrily at him and leaned in to whisper, "So I'll just keep it with me…" Her moist pink tongue ran along the edge of his ear and she finished her sentence. _"For now…"_

She began to walk away, trailing her hand along his jawline, before turning and leaving down the hall, a little more swing in her hips and confidence in her step.

Naruto gaped after her, his eyes wide and only leaving her hips and backside when she went around a corner.

Shizuna was glad she didn't look back. The whole effort would have been ruined if Naruto could see how red her face was.

Now, Naruto was no stranger to being teased. He'd dealt with it many times over his life, even having a woman sneak into his room and pose on his bed naked, more than once.

But something about Shizuna had him completely off balance. It might have been the fact that she seemed like a normal, if not intelligent and sweet (and magical) woman, not a woman who would grope him in the middle of a school full of girls and blackmail him as well to get what she wanted.

He could honestly say that he could probably shatter a pillar made of solid diamond at the moment.

Absentmindedly, he realized that walking around a school full of girls (pretty ones at that) aroused as he was, would be a bad idea, for more than his career. He flexed his magic and created a ball of ice in of his hand, and with the other opened the front of his pants and dropped it in.

The shock of the cold pulled him rather forcefully out of his lust/shock induced trance. He hopped on the spot wildly, before remembering that he had magic and vanished the ice.

"These women will be the death of me…" He muttered under his breath, rubbing the bridge of his nose exasperatedly.

He honestly couldn't tell if he was looking forward to it or dreading it.

…

_(Even Later…)_

After the school day had ended, Naruto was now on his way to Chao Bao Zi to grab dinner. Zazie had begged off joining him, citing that she needed to meet with other members of the Nightmare Circus and practice, though she absolutely refused to meet his eyes.

Naruto wasn't surprised. He knew she was a member of the Royal Family of the Demon Folk, so the love potion's memory erasing ability wouldn't have worked, and she remembered everything.

So now he was on his own. He took the time during his walk to enjoy the sounds and smells of Mahora. The restaurants and eateries were opened and dealing with the dinner rush, so there weren't many people outside.

A small scuffle down an alley caught his attention. "Give me your money and I won't kill you, bitch!" A rough male voice growled.

"Screw you!"

Naruto looked down the alley in time to see Chizuru Naba knee a thuggish man in the groin- and the man's response.

He held a switchblade in his right hand and grabbed his groin with his left, and stabbed at her with the blade wildly. It cut into the side of her neck, missing her jugular or any fatal spots, but still stunning her from the pain.

Naruto saw the blood drip down her neck, and his whole vision fell into a red spectrum.

"You stupid bitch! I'll kill you!" The thug sneered at her.

A tanned hand grabbed his wrist and pulled it away from Chizuru, while another fist slammed into the junction of his shoulder and arm.

Naruto pulled the arm back as he punched, and the thug's shoulder cracked and bent grotesquely. He gripped the thug under his arm and hurled him over his blonde head and into the street while pulling the knife from his grip.

The thug hit the street roughly, crying out in pain as his shoulder was jostled.

Naruto took the knife he had pulled and flicked it at the thug, piercing his left shoulder all the way up to the hilt and making him scream in pain.

With a furious visage, Naruto stalked over to the thug who was rolling on the ground in pain, and stomped on his crotch.

The thug's eyes bulged and his face turned blue, a strangled shriek sounding out from his mouth.

Naruto drew his foot back and kicked the thug in the chin, the back of his head bouncing off of the concrete and sending him into unconsciousness.

Without a magical healing session, that thug would never regain full use in his arms again, and would never have children.

"No one touches my students." Naruto growled at the unconscious man.

Turning back to Chizuru, he observed that she was shaking and staring wide-eyed at the wall with unseeing eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks. She jumped violently when Naruto touched her shoulder, looking as if she was just now seeing him.

Her lips began to tremble as tears came faster, and she leaped forward and wrapped her arms around Naruto, sobbing into his chest as he stroked her long brown hair.

"You're alright, Chizuru-chan. You'll be just fine." Naruto murmured to her softly. _I need to find Shizuna. She's can help her more than I can._

Naruto picked Chizuru up in a bridal carry, letting her head rest on his neck as he ran towards Shizuna's house.

…

Shizuna Minamoto lived in a small cottage on campus, with a bathroom, a kitchen, a bedroom and a living room, along with a dining room. All of it was small, because Shizuna rarely, if ever, had anyone over to visit, and having a bigger house would have been wasteful.

The mint-haired counselor picked at her plate of stir-fry, her mind on the events of the day, more specifically the blonde sensei in the middle of it: Naruto.

She didn't know where it came from, but she liked the look on Naruto's face when she teased him. He had been majorly stunned, and the stuttering and shaking was very cute.

Not to mention she had gotten quite the feel of him, and she liked what she felt.

A blush lit up Shizuna's cheeks as she thought of her actions. Being a fan of Naruto's works (his adult novels), she had always wondered if the rumors about the story's protagonist being Naruto under a different name were true.

Three knocks on her door pulled her out of her thoughts. She went answer it, finding Naruto standing in the doorway. Shizuna went to tease him, but her eyes were drawn to the girl he was carrying in his arms, and the blood on her collar.

"Naruto-kun, what's going on?" She asked in surprise.

Naruto smiled sadly. "Chizuru was attacked earlier tonight. Can I come in?"

Shizuna shook herself and motioned for him to enter. "Of course, let me get my fist aid kit. Set Chizuru-chan down on my bed, I'll be with you in a second."

Naruto went to Shizuna's bedroom and tried to set Chizuru down on the blue sheeted bed, but the motherly girl wouldn't let got of him, and whimpered when he tried to leave, so he sat on the bed with her in his lap.

Shizuna came back with her first aid kit and opened it, taking what she needed. The older woman cleaned the wound and examined it, before putting some gauze on it and wrapping it with a few bandages.

"The cut's not very deep, so it won't require stitches, but it will leave a small scar." She commented, packing her supplies back up. Shizuna moved to sit by them on her bed as Naruto set Chizuru next to him, the girl still latched onto his side like a lifeline.

Fresh tears glittered in her eyes as she buried her head into Naruto's side. "I thought I was going to die…" She mumbled shakily.

"Oh, sweetie," Shizuna murmured softly. She moved up behind Chizuru as Naruto hugged her, and wrapped her arms around them both, holding the girl in between them to comfort her.

They fell asleep like that, holding on to one another and giving a scared girl the comfort she sought from the man who had saved her and the woman she trusted.

…

**A/N: That's the end of the second chapter. Shorter than the first, I know, but it felt like the right place to end it.**

**I know people will be like, "Dude, you're moving the romances to fast!"**

**My response: No I'm not, shut up.**

**It's been proven that when someone experiences trauma (such as nearly being killed), they will latch on to the nearest source of comfort.**

**Also, the only romance that has been shown at all was the first couple of paragraphs. So far, the girls are only **_**interested **_**in Naruto, not totally in love and wildly lusting after him.**

**Also, I'm the author. I can literally do anything I want here. I will take suggestions, but that won't have any big effects on the story.**

**Next chapter: Dodgeball and Library Island.**

**Thanks once again to NorthSouthGorem for his help with his characters and providing inspiration.**

**Keep Being Awesome!**

**-Soleneus**


	3. Dodgeball and Library Island

The last week days had been somewhat hectic. Most of the girls in 2-A were very confused to have nearly two hours of their day disappear for no apparent reason, though many of them wondered why they couldn't get the image of a shirtless and sweaty Naruto out of their minds.

Kazumi had it worse. She swore she'd actually thrown herself at the blonde sensei and made out with him, and then he touched her and she blacked out. The fact that her underwear was sticky made her draw some conclusions and kick-started her investigative mind.

And then, the news came out that Chizuru had been attacked by someone and rescued by their sensei, of all people. The whole class had pulled out all of the stops and tried to make Chizuru feel better; and in no time, she was back to her normal, cheerful and teasing self, though she would jump at loud noises on occasion.

Asuna and Negi were punished for the Love Potion incident. Asuna was made to study medical books with Shizuna and take a test afterwards, while Negi was made to clean all of the erasers on the second floor, and was also banned from using magic unless it was an emergency.

Naruto also sent a letter home to Nekane, whose wrath Negi feared more than anything. Feminine fury scared all males, even the young ones.

…

Naruto's routine had been the same every day. He'd wake up early, work-out for two hours, shower, eat breakfast and then start class. During lunch, he'd teach Konoka about magic and it's applications, as well as eat lunch. Then, he'd go back to teaching, plan out the next lesson with Negi, and then grab dinner with Zazie at the dorm or Chao Bao Zi.

He'd also gone to the local childcare center with Chizuru twice, where he'd discovered that the mature-figured girl was very popular with the children, who cheered when she came by and cried when she left.

The exams were about to begin, and class 2-A was usually at the bottom of the grade lists, even though they had some of the smartest students in Mahora.

This was because of what the class called 'the Baka Rangers', with Yue Ayase as Baka Black; Kaede Nagase as Baka Blue; Ku Fei as Baka Yellow; Makie Sasaki as Baka Pink and Asuna as Baka Red, the "Leader" of the Baka Rangers as she consistently had the worst grades.

Naruto noted several things about these 'Baka's. Yue Ayase was a friend of Nodoka's, and a member of the Exploration Club, and it seemed like the only reason she was low in grades was her dislike of anything and everything to do with studying and homework.

Kaede Nagase was a member of the Strolling Club, as well as a ninja. She was fairly curvy, being second only to Chizuru and slightly ahead of Kazumi in that regard. Her eyes were always squinted to the point of seeming shut, and she always smiled. Kaede was calm and collected, but enjoyed teasing her friends on occasion.

Ku Fei was Chinese with blonde hair that was bunched into pig-tails and had jade-green eyes. She was rather silly and fun-loving, and a member of the Kung-Fu club, which she led due to the fact that she was the strongest. The main thing holding her grades down was the fact that she was Chinese, and had grown up in China, speaking Cantonese. She had a very small knowledge of Japanese, thus she was a 'Baka'.

Makie Sasaki was, to put it lightly, an airhead. She could never seem to focus on more than one thing at a time, and that one thing was usually something completely different than what was going on.

Asuna was pretty obvious.

So Naruto made deal with the Baka Rangers: Whoever scores the highest on the exams would get a date with him. Not a 'date' in a romantic sense, but more of doing any activity the girl wanted to do with him.

Now, Naruto and Negi were in class. The Baka Rangers had really buckled down and studied hard, but Naruto was unaware of this today, as he was asleep.

He had let Negi take this class time as practice, so he would have experience if he ever became a teacher, while he leaned against the wall next to the row of windows, sleeping quietly.

The class hadn't become aware of Naruto falling asleep until they saw that his eyes had glazed over and had been staring at the back wall for half an hour.

Ayaka nudged Negi as he passed her desk. "Negi-sensei, what is wrong with Naruto-sensei? Is he alright?"

The red-head turned to look at his brother with concern. Naruto appeared to be awake, but his eyes were glazed and unblinking and he was breathing deeply. He gave the class a confused shrug and moved in front of Naruto.

"Naruto-nii? Hello, Naruto-nii-san!" Trying to wake the older blonde up, Negi snapped his fingers in Naruto's ear, hoping the loud sound would snap him awake.

Naruto's eyes brightened and widened in shock, and before anyone could stop him, he had dived out of the window.

He fell out of the classroom in a shower of glass, grasping a branch of the nearby tree and swinging himself onto the ground, where he rolled and came up into a fighting stance, his face hard and his muscles tense.

…Until he finally realized where he was. Naruto glanced around him, noting the trees, buildings and the pair of girls who were staring at guy who had jumped out of a thirty-story window for no apparent reason and was unharmed from the fall.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, a sheepish smile creeping across his face. "Whoops. Sorry about that."

The girls just gaped at him, eyes wide.

Naruto turned and ran up the wall, pushing himself off and back onto the tree, where he used the branches as stepping stones and ladders, before finally spring-boarding off a high branch. He flew through the space between building and tree and back through the window, rolling to a stop in front of the shocked students. He laughed guiltily, rubbing the back of his head. "Heheh...oops?"

You could have heard a pin drop from how still everyone was. Jenna guffawed into her hand. "Oops, he says," she chuckled.

Most of the class gaped at him in amazement, though there were more than a few who knew someone who could do the same or actually could do the same.

Among them were Ku Fei and Kaede. The kung fu fanatic had excited sparkles in her eyes. A man who could move like that could also fight, and if there was one thing she loved, it was fighting.

Kaede recognized the movements, having used them countless times as a ninja. That meant Naruto either was a ninja, or had been trained by one. Either way was a win-win in her book. If he was a ninja, he could teach her more ninjutsu, same if he was trained by one. She would need to find a way to talk to Naruto alone…

Just then, the lunch bell rang, startling the class out of their surprise. "Oh look, there's the lunch bell!" Naruto exclaimed before he fled out of the door, unknowingly followed by three figures.

The blonde sensei jogged to a stop in the middle of a clearing in a forested area. _Kami, that was embarrassing. I haven't jumped like that in years._ He rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. _I need to relax a little…I remember hearing about a bath house around here. I'll ask Zazie later._

His eyes flicked around the clearing as he felt three signatures enter it, though two were suppressed.

The third was standing on a tree branch right in front of him, staring at him with hard brown eyes as one hand gripped the handle of a nodachi.

It was Setsuna Sakurazaki, Shinmei-Ryu swordswoman and Konoka's bodyguard.

Naruto arched a questioning eyebrow at her hostile stance. "Can I help you, Setsuna-san?"

She narrowed her eyes on him angrily. "You revealed the world of magic Konoka-ojou-sama, against the wishes of both the Dean-sama and Eishun-sama. Why would you do this?"

Naruto folded his arms over his chest and gave Setsuna a frosty look. "Keeping Konoka-chan's heritage a secret, especially one that could endanger her later, was a stupid move."

At her sound of anger, he raised a hand to stall her. "Listen to me, Setsuna. Konoka has the magical power and potential to be stronger then Nagi Springfield, the World-Renowned 'Thousand Master'. Keeping magic from her not only could have killed her in the future, but she could have easily been twisted by someone who wanted to use her power for their own gains."

The brown-haired swordswoman glared at the branch she was standing on like it had stolen something from her. She sighed heavily and nodded once. "Fine. I can understand where you are coming from…" Setsuna shot him a fierce look. "But I do not like it. I am the one who is supposed to protect Konoka-ojou-sama, not you! How can I trust you to have her best interests at heart?"

"Seriously?" Naruto asked incredulously. "You know who I am, right? I ran with Nagi and Eishun in Ala Rubra, they're my friends and we trust each other. Konoka-chan is also my friend, and I never hurt my friends intentionally…unlike some, Setsuna."

The swordswoman flinched back as if struck, her angry reply jumping from her lips like a tiger. "I did that to protect Konoka-sama!"

The blonde sensei narrowed his eyes on her accusingly. "By making her think that her first and longest friend wants nothing to do with her? To make her regret something she believes she did to push you away, when there really isn't anything she did?"

Setsuna's eyes were guilty, but she wouldn't let Naruto infringe on her honor like that! "I did what was best! Do not insult my honor again!"

Naruto's eyebrows rose in a mockery of seriousness. "Honor? In abandoning your friend and breaking her heart? We must have different definitions of honor, then."

With a ring of metal, Setsuna pulled the nodachi from it's sheath angrily. "No more! I challenge you to the right of Konoka-ojou-sama's protector!"

A dry grin spread over Naruto's face. "Very well then. We will see who is the stronger among us."

He made two hollow fists with his hands and put them together, like he was holding some sort of tube in them. Naruto pulled his right hand away from his left, and there was suddenly a handle there, where none had been before.

Pulled from seemingly nowhere, a blade appeared in his hands. It was matte black with a sliver edge and what looked like small bolts placed along the length, and it gave off a low, sinister hum.

Setsuna narrowed her eyes on him accusingly. "Where is your sword?"

Naruto raised a single eyebrow in question. "I'm holding it right now."

She actually growled at him. "Every story I've heard about you states that you wield five-foot Western-Styled broadsword with carvings on it. Do you not find me a worthy enough opponent to wield it?"

The blonde shook his head and fell into a simple stance with his blade in front of him in both hands. "Nagi is a great mage, a good friend and not that bad of a drinking partner, but he's total dick. After our final battle together, he stole it from me when I was passed out from a night of wild, drunken sex."

This was all said with a dry, sensible tone, which made it somewhat comical.

Setsuna's eyes widened in shock before they were narrowed angrily. "How could they be so irresponsible to let a child drink and fornicate like that?!"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her again. "I wasn't a child at that point, Setsuna."

Now confusion was evident on her features. "But if you are seventeen now, then you would to be child at that time!" She nodded to herself and spoke under her breath, "I already thought that you were lying about your age, this just proves it."

The strange blonde shook his head. "I am seventeen, Setsuna."

She pointed at him with her blade with frustration written across her face. "But if you are seventeen now, then you wouldn't have been able to fight with Ala Rubra!"

"I was seventeen."

"Then how old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"How old are you _now_? You said 'I _was_ seventeen'! That means you aged!"

"No, I didn't say that. I'm seventeen, Setsuna. What is so confusing about that?"

"You said you were seventeen! You can't be seventeen for decades! How old are you really?!"

"There seems to be something getting lost in the translation here. I'm seventeen."

"ARGH!" Setsuna looked about ready to pull her ponytail out, instead slashing out with her sword angrily. "Zan-Ku-Sen!"

A crescent of energy flew from her blade and tore across the clearing towards Naruto. The blonde sensei blinked once and, without any discernable effort, cut the attack in half.

In the trees, Kaede and Mana gaped in shock, with Setsuna doing the same as the cutting air wave crashed into the trees behind Naruto.

"Not bad," Naruto commented lightly, "Let's see how you deal with my attack."

He crouched and lowered his sword into a right-handed Battojutsu stance. "Ichiban Issen (First Flash)."

He 'drew' his sword and sliced the air, sending a horizontal blade of light ripping over the distance between Setsuna and himself.

Setsuna's eyes widened in shock and dashed out of the way of the attack, rolling to her feet as Naruto's blade clashed against hers. His cerulean eyes peered into her brown as her arms shook under the strain of holding him back. Sparks flew from the point of contact between the two blades as an angry buzzing emanated from Naruto's sword.

The brunette girl gathered enough strength to push him back slightly with an angry shout and slashed at his waist.

Naruto blocked with his katana and a flash of sparks ignited at impact, throwing each of their faces into sharp relief. Setsuna growled angrily and swung rapidly, each clash throwing sparks from their blades.

Kaede watched as Naruto folded his left arm behind his back and blocked every swing Setsuna made casually, a disinterested look on his face as the swordswoman's strikes became more wild and erratic. The Kunoichis' eyes were wide open as she carefully examined every move of this one-sided fight.

Naruto had been on the defensive for almost every second of the fight so far, but that could easily change in a second.

It did.

Suddenly, he spun around after blocking a strike from Setsuna and went on the attack; his blade moving so fast it left after-images.

She was back-pedaling rapidly, desperately blocking or dodging every strike; sweat beginning to pour down her forehead.

Naruto's every swing of the blade flowed into another and another, never stopping as he spun and twisted gracefully, his blade's contrails leaving a swirl pattern that hung in the air after he had moved on.

Setsuna was getting angrier at every strike, each of which was dealt with just one hand on the blade. _Does he not think I'm strong enough to deal with his full strength? I will show him the error of his ways!_ "You will take me seriously! Zan-Gan-Ken!"

She released her Ki attack at point blank with a mid-height slash that would have bifurcated a normal human, as well as the trees behind him.

Naruto was not normal.

With the dispassionate look still firmly affixed, he swung his blade up and caught the attack, spinning it around his body and throwing it into the ground in between them.

The ground exploded and threw Setsuna skidding back, her arms over her face to protect it from the debris. Once the earth had fallen, she uncovered her vision, only to find that Naruto had somehow disappeared from the clearing.

"Stop hiding, coward!" She shouted angrily.

He did.

With a burst of earth, Naruto shot up out of his spot under the ground, a geyser of dirt following him into the air.

The sudden action right in front of Setsuna made her stumble back, and she was unprepared as he descended on her with his katana.

Their blades met in a clash of sparks, Setsuna's wrist bent loosely as he smashed his weapon against hers with no style, the sparks flying and blinding her into disorientation.

Naruto smacked her nodachi up and away from her body, twisting his katana into a reverse-grip and slapping the handle away from her grasp. The blade flew off into the clearing, impaling the ground and staying there.

Now defenseless, Setsuna could do nothing but try to dodge as Naruto slashed at her quickly.

To anyone else, it would have appeared that Naruto missed every attack by inches, but Mana's sharp eyes saw that he wasn't missing, he was only giving Setsuna tiny cuts that only broke a few layers of skin. Naruto spun and sliced lightly and Setsuna gasped in pain as his blade cut into her skin.

With a final flourish and cut, the blonde sensei stopped and posed as the brunette's shirt fluttered away with the wind, the kanji for 'Stupid' traced over her stomach. The swordswoman collapsed to the ground, her legs unable to support her weight any longer.

Naruto dropped his pose and strode over to the downed Setsuna and tapped her chin with the tip of his katana. "Do you yield?"

A grimace of shame covered her face as she visibly struggled to stand, but finally gave up as tears gathered in her eyes. "Yes…I surrender." She whispered softly.

The blonde sighed and dismissed his sword back to wherever it came from and held a glowing hand out above Setsuna. With a flick of his wrist, her small cuts healed over without scarring and her shirt repaired itself into pristine condition.

Setsuna blinked in surprise as Naruto pulled her to her feet. "Why did you do that?" She asked quietly.

Naruto smiled gently at her. "Personal reasons aside, Setsuna-chan, you're still one of my students, and I would never hurt my students. This was the only way to get my point through to you."

The brunette dusted herself off and gathered her nodachi. "What point? That I'm not strong enough to protect Konoka-ojou-sama?" She replied bitterly.

"No." Naruto shot back drily. "That you can't protect Konoka-chan by yourself. It's the law of the universe. No matter how strong or fast you get, there is always somebody out there that is stronger and faster."

He waved one of his hands airily as they began to walk back to school. "Think of it like this: would you rather have someone kidnap Konoka and fight you and you lose, or would rather have someone try to kidnap Konoka-chan and you take them down together?"

Setsuna scoffed. "I'd rather they didn't get close enough to Konoka-ojou-sama to take her."

"But it is inevitable that someone will." Naruto pointed out. "No one's perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. But mistakes can be avoided or rectified with the right back-up."

The swordswoman hmph'd and crossed her arms childishly. "Fine! What do you want me to do?"

Naruto smirked mischievously. "You have to apologize to Konoka-chan and be friends with her again, as well as join her when I teach her about magic."

Setsuna gaped at him in disbelief. "What?!"

His smirk widened. "You declared we would fight for the position of Konoka-chan's bodyguard, which means that you have to look out for the VIP's best interests. You did swear on your honor."

"Bu-wha-ho-why…gah! Fine! I will apologize to Konoka-ojou-sama! And join her for lessons!" She yelled, before stomping off in a huff.

Naruto laughed to himself and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Don't forget to be friends again!"

"FINE!"

The blonde chuckled and shook his head with a smile. "Making stoic people scream in anger…the best past time there is." He muttered to himself.

Taking a look at his watch, Naruto cursed. "Dammit! I'm late for my next class!"

With a final oath, he appeared to stand stock still, before fading away seconds later.

In the trees behind him, two feminine voices also cursed their own lateness.

…

In the elevated gym, Makie, Yuuna Akashi, Ako Izumi and Akira Okochi were bouncing a volleyball between them casually, waiting for the substitute PE teacher and the rest of the class.

Yuuna was a slender but toned girl who enjoyed many sports, mostly basketball. Her father was one of the Mage-Teachers at Mahora, but she didn't seem to have any type of training in magic at all. She was very easy-going, and it took a lot to rile her up.

Ako had lavender hair that was short cut, only the back of her hair reaching her shoulders. She was a nurse's assistant, shy and demure. She was roommates with Makie, and usually hung out with her, Yuuna and Akira. She also had a fear of blood, which made her job seem odd for her.

Akira was a tall, full-bodied girl who loved swimming and was very good at the sport. She was one of the most mature of the class, and there were many who looked up to her, including Fumika Narutaki.

"What do you guys think of Naruto-sensei?" Akira asked as she bounced the ball off of her heel to Yuuna.

Ako blushed and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "He's really kind…but he can be so mysterious sometimes. His eyes are like jewels that shimmer whenever he feels happy or mischievous…and his hair is like the sun…and that body…"

The purplette trailed off as she noticed that the other girls had stopped passing the ball and were staring at her with blushes and smirks.

"I asked for everyone's opinion, Ako-chan, not just yours." Akira commented lightly, though she inwardly agreed with the shy nurse's assistant.

"What about his tattoo?" Makie asked excitedly. "It's a raven! Who'd think that Naruto-sensei would have one of those on his back?"

Yuuna tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, he doesn't really seem like the type to get a tattoo. Maybe it's a symbol of a girl he was in love with who was named Raven? There is the word Eternal in the heart of it."

"He doesn't seem like he would get a tattoo for a girl." Akira muttered.

Ako flushed heavily and scratched one of her cheeks. "I wasn't looking at his tattoo…"

Makie giggled and missed the ball with her head, sending it sailing out onto the other side of the court, where it rolled to a stop against the foot of a tall girl.

"Well lookie here. A couple of little girls who think they're women." The girl said smugly.

…

Naruto was already on his way to the gym when Makie and Akira sprinted up to him, looking scuffed and ruffled. "Naruto-sensei!"

"Girls!" He exclaimed in surprise. "What's going on? Why are you hurt?"

"These high-school girls started insulting us, and Asuna started insulting them back and then one of them kicked a volleyball at Akira-chan and then everyone started fighting!" Makie hurried out breathlessly.

Naruto frowned, a look that was alien on his normally cheerful face. "Where is the fight happening?"

"At the elevated gym!" Akira pointed in the direction Naruto was already going. He nodded and began to jog towards the gym, the girls following behind him.

They came to the gym, where most of the girls where fighting. There were a few that weren't, like Zazie, Mana, Chizuru, Setsuna and Konoka. Setsuna had a grip on her bokken and an angry look that scared away any comers. Hailey looked concerned, while Jenna seemed to be sleeping while leaning against a wall.

A blonde girl who looked to be ten years old looked bored as she sat on a bench with a tall girl with green hair and antennae for ears.

Naruto's eye twitched as he watched the girls fighting, Ayaka and Asuna right in the middle of the melee. "Girls!" He shouted, but only a few stopped, the majority still fighting. "GIRLS!"

A few more stopped to look at him, but there were still more than a few involved in the fracas. His sharp eyes noticed Ako curled up on the ground, her arms covering her head as a multitude of legs battered her.

Naruto reached into one of the pockets of his jacket and threw a pinch of flash powder into the air, where it ignited with bright flash and a loud boom.

"ENOUGH!" He roared, freezing the girls in place as his angry face swam into view after the spots faded from their vision.

Naruto pushed passed the girls to the center of the fight, where Ako was balled up. He knelt next to her and gathered the girl in his arms, carrying her bridal style from the group and to the bench, setting her down carefully before turning to the girls with a cold visage.

"I am very disappointed. In all of you." His cerulean eyes scanned over the crowd of guilty faces. "Ayaka, I didn't expect something like this from you. I would expect something like this from Asuna, but not the Iincho of the class."

The blonde rich girl looked down and away, an ashamed blush on her face. One of the older girls laughed derisively. Naruto's gaze snapped to her and she froze under the cool blue. "The same goes for all of you. You are their sempai. You're supposed to set a good example for the younger students. I will be talking with the dean about this."

He moved back and picked Ako up into his arms. "You have free period in five minutes." Naruto left, leaving behind quite a few ashamed and depressed girls.

He carried the shivering girl to the nurse's office, which was empty with Shizuna being gone for lunch. He tried to set her down on one of the beds, but she refused to let go of him.

"Ako-chan, it's all right. No one is fighting anymore, okay?" He whispered to her softly.

Ako's scared brown eyes fluttered open, her brown eyes darting around the room nervously. "They're not?"

Naruto rubbed her shoulder soothingly. "We're not even in the gym anymore, Ako-chan."

The purplette sighed in relief, her limbs loosening on her body, though she still shivered once in a while. When she shivered, her eyes would glaze over as if she was remembering something she'd rather not recall.

"Are you okay, Ako-chan? Do you want to talk about it?" He asked softly, sitting on the cot next to her.

She shuddered again but nodded her head in an affirmation. Naruto watched as she gathered her courage and opened her mouth to speak, but lost it and closed her lips.

He leaned against the wall and put an arm around her shoulders, and Ako allowed him to pull her head onto his shoulder.

"It's just…every time I see someone fight…" Tears began to stream from her eyes, "I see…I see _that_…"

Naruto rubbed her back gently. "What do you see?"

Ako shook her head in denial; her eyes squeezed shut as tears began drip from her chin onto her clothes.

The blonde sighed lightly and thought, _Well, to be fair, I have things in my past that I don't want to talk about either._

He took a deep breath and began to speak in a low tone. "When I was younger, I was discovered to have special abilities…abilities never seen before. A group of scientists found out about me and kidnapped me."

Ako gasped as she looked at Naruto's face in shock, though his eyes were glazed and unseeing. "They thought that my powers could be transferred to other people, but they didn't know how. So, they experimented. A lot. On me."

The purplette began to cry for Naruto, hugging his midsection tightly. "They held me captive for a long time…I couldn't fight; they kept putting drugs in my food to keep me docile. Finally, I managed to lull them into a sense of complacency and broke out when they weren't expecting it, and I barely made it out with my life."

His eyes cleared as he blinked away the memories. Naruto looked down at Ako as she clutched him tightly, a growing wet spot on his shoulder. He wrapped his other arm around her shoulders, returning her embrace fully. "We all have memories we'd rather get rid of, Ako-chan, ones that we can never forget. But it does help to talk about them to someone who will listen." He whispered into her hair. "You listened to me, Ako-chan. Allow me to return the favor."

Ako shivered as her mind went back to that particular event, the one that scarred her, figuratively and literally.

"When I was four…my mom and dad took me on a walk through our neighborhood…as we were walking, two rival Yakuza gangs started a turf war, with us in the middle of it all…" She shuddered and Naruto hugged her tighter to himself, listening raptly. "My dad was shot, and died instantly…and my mom was caught in the flames of a Molotov…I hid under a car, just wishing that they would leave me alone, and that my mom would stop screaming…"

Ako couldn't stop the words from coming out of her mouth; they just spilled out like water. "Someone hit the car I was hiding under with a fire bomb and I had to crawl out before it blew up, and one of the gang members thought I was an enemy…and he carved my back open with a broken bottle…"

Naruto hugged her tightly as she grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt and sobbed into his chest. One of his hands stroked her hair while the other rubbed small circles in between her shoulder blades comfortingly.

He just held her as she cried out her pain into his shirt, holding her tightly to let her know he was there.

Ako eventually ran out of tears and just held onto Naruto, and she spoke once again. "I fainted after that…when I came to, the doctors told me it was a miracle that I was still alive after losing so much blood. My mom wouldn't ever be able to walk again and was in constant pain for the rest of her life, before she died from an infection…after that I was raised by the nurse who took watched over me and my mother for three years. She's the reason I wanted to become a nurse…even though I can't stand the sight of blood. Eventually, I moved here and Shizuna-sensei took me on as an assistant. And I've never been happier."

Ako snuggled into his embrace and squeezed him, her demeanor morphing from sadness to warmth as she held onto him. "I have friends I love being around…and I have two sensei's who listen to me, even though they have more important stuff they could do…"

Another warm body was draped over both Ako and Naruto, a feminine body with green hair.

"Naruto-sensei will agree with me, Ako-chan, when I say that nothing is more important to a teacher than their students." Shizuna said, squeezing both of them tightly.

"Of course I agree, Shizuna-chan." Naruto replied, "And it's more than a job; it's my pleasure to get to know each and every one of you girls on a personal level. You can always talk to me about anything that's bothering you."

Ako blinked in surprise, looking at both of the sensei's faces in surprise, before moisture started gathering in her eyes again and a wide, happy smile broke out on her face as she hugged both of them tighter.

"Thank you, sensei…"

…

"Ah, Naruto-kun, thank you for seeing me on such a short notice." Konoemon greeted Naruto jovially.

The blonde waved it off airily as he took a seat in front of the Dean's desk. "Not a problem, I just had to get Negi to take over the gym class I was substituting for. What'd you need me for, old man?"

The old man straightened up and lost his normally cheerful look. "As you know, Naruto-kun, class 2-A has been at the bottom of scoring in tests for quite a while. I would like to know how to plan to fix that."

Naruto nodded, "I see. Well, as you've no doubt heard, most of my class seems to be infatuated with me on some level, probably due to my bishounen goods looks and whiskers." He paused to glare at the Dean, who had given off a perverted giggle. "Quiet, you. Using their attraction to me, I've set up a small contest to see who could score the highest, and whoever does gets a date with me."

The Dean quirked an eyebrow and giggled again. "Not like that, old man. Whoever wins has an afternoon to do whatever activity they want with me. Nothing perverse." He added quickly, seeing the grin on Konoemon's face.

"That's all well and good, Naruto-kun, but I want you to know something: If you can not bring 2-A out of the bottom rank, you will have to leave Mahora." He said seriously.

Naruto waved the warning off easily. "I gotcha. It won't be a problem."

Konoemon smirked slightly. "You certainly aren't lacking for confidence, are you Naruto-kun?"

The blonde chuckled and grinned. "I just know how awesome I am." He sat up sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'd better get back to my gym class. I can only guess what's happening right now…"

"Triangle Attack!" A red Dodgeball bounced off of Fuka and hit Haruna, rebounding off of her to hit Ayaka in the face, while Negi watched from the sidelines, twisting his bandaged staff in his hands nervously.

Earlier in the period, the older girls who had gotten in a fight with 2-A had returned after taking Negi hostage, demanding the class to play Dodgeball to settle the problem between them once and for all while using Negi as leverage.

Asuna had agreed to the challenge, despite the fact that 2-A outnumbered the older girls by a good number, which was not a good thing in Dodgeball.

And now, it came to this. A good number of the girls had been taken out by the older ones, leaving the more athletic girls (and Nodoka) to defend their honor and assistant sensei.

"Why do I tempt fate like this?" Naruto muttered to himself, one palm firmly pressed against his face. He shook his head with a sigh, before watching the game with a piercing gaze.

As he watched, the girls rallied themselves with the help of Asuna and Negi, and managed to beat the older girls using their own unique skills, Makie using her ribbon, Akira with her leg strength and Setsuna with battojutsu, strangely.

When the older girls had been driven off in shame and 2-A was celebrating their victory, Naruto stepped forward, clapping his hands with a wide grin. "Awesome job, girls!"

"Sensei!" The girls shouted in surprise.

"You used your skills, stuck together and defeated a more experienced team." Naruto said. "Take a lesson from this: you can defeat overwhelming odds with the right people behind you."

The girls cheered once more.

…

Naruto sat back in the hot water of the onsen with a relieved sigh, letting the stress of the past few days go. Zazie played in the water next to him, making little whirls and patterns with the soap.

"…?" She asked quietly, grabbing a bottle of shampoo from its nook.

The blindfolded sensei shrugged lightly. "Sure, why not. I can't see, so you'll have to help me find your hair." He held his hands out, palms up.

Zazie licked her lips quickly, her amber eyes darting between Naruto's face and his hands, before taking a quiet, deep breath and lightly grabbing his hands and bringing them to her face.

Naruto felt his hands come into contact with smooth skin instead of silky hair and nearly froze in surprise. He felt the texture; smooth and soft, warm and pliable. His fingers slowly brushed over her cheeks and under her eyes, over her nose and following the curve of her jaw to the tip of her chin, the pads of his thumbs brushing over her lips, soft and supple, like velvet.

His hands trailed back up her jaw, once more cupping her cheeks in his calloused hands.

Zazie, during his blind exploration of her face, had moved in the water until she was directly in front of him. She reached her hands up and gripped his wrists, gently squeezing them with her similarly calloused hands. Her eyes locked onto his, having discarded the blindfold but kept his eyes closed to preserve the moment, now open to meet her gaze.

Slowly, without disturbing the water, they drifted closer, lost in each other's eyes. They were so close; they could feel the other's breath on their faces.

The door banged open, admitting most of the chattering girls of 2-A into the room.

Had anyone looked, they would have found Naruto sitting with Zazie between his legs, his hands massaging foaming shampoo into her hair, a blindfold around his eyes.

The girls clamored into the bath, talking about the day and what they had planned for the holidays. No one noticed Zazie or Naruto in their corner of the bath as they switched to the acrobat now washing the sensei's hair.

"Who's going to win the date with Naruto-sensei?" Narutaki Fumika asked suddenly.

Yue raised her hand calmly, sipping on an ever-present juice box. "I believe my scores will sufficient to win the competition."

Makie pouted and crossed her arms, splashing the water around her. "I doubt that! I've been studying, like, super hard! I bet I'll ace this test!"

"Speaking of Naruto-sensei," Haruna spoke with a familiar gleam in her eyes, "Does anyone know where he lives?"

"Why do you want to know?" Hailey asked curiously, with the only part of her body sticking out of the water being her head and neck.

"Feh!" Jenna scoffed from next to her, unconcerned with the full view of her chest she was giving out as she bumped Hailey with her elbow. "You know why she wants to."

Hailey flushed a deep shade of red in embarrassment and sank further into the water like a turtle, mumbling, "Someone had to ask…"

"Ayaka, you could you use your authority as Iincho to-"

The tall blonde splashed the water indignantly, her face stern. "No! I refuse to abuse my position like that!"

Haruna smiled knowingly at her. "…But you want to, right?"

Ayaka's face turned bright red. "S-Shut up, Saotome!"

In their corner, Naruto quietly asked Zazie, "Do you think they know we're here?"

"…"

"I gathered that, but I'm pretty sure Hailey and Jenna, or just Jenna at least knows we're over here and is trying to embarrass us."

"…?"

"I wouldn't put it past her to point us out at the precise time to embarrass as many of the girls as she can."

"…?"

"No, I kind of want to hear their reactions."

Kaede tapped her chin thoughtfully and hummed. "You know, now that I think about it, I have seen Naruto-sensei walking with Zazie, de-gozaru. Maybe she would know?"

As a few of the girls looked around for the quiet girl, the door swung open forcefully, banging against the wall and drawing the attention of the girls.

"Guys! We just heard something terrible!" Konoka yelled, running into the room, with a panicked Asuna following behind her.

"What?!" The girls shouted in shock.

"Asuna forgot one of her things in the nurses' room and I went with her to get it, and while we were there, we heard Takahata-sensei and Shizuna-sensei talking about Naruto-sensei!" She explained in one breath. "We heard that if class 2-A doesn't get passing scores in the exams, Naruto-sensei won't be teaching us anymore!"

Gasps of horror rang out through the bath, the girls looking particularly horrified. Jenna rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "Drama Queens…Why don't ask Naruto himself about the rumors? Because, y'know, he's been right over there the whole time."

Silence fell over the bathhouse as the girls, as one, turned in the water, following Jenna's finger.

Naruto felt the shift in the water as Zazie played with his hair, molding it into a spiky Mohawk, and waved with a simple "Yo."

The heat from the girls' faces could be felt all the way over to Naruto's spot.

"Sensei!" Ayaka shrieked. "What are you doing here?!"

Naruto turned his blindfolded eyes on her with a quirked eyebrow. "I am getting my hair washed." Zazie dumped a bucket of water over his head at that point. "Thank you Zazie-chan."

"Zazie!" Ayaka cried in outrage. "What are you doing here with Naruto-sensei? Th-that's immoral!" She had a tone of jealousy in her voice that was missed by no one.

The blond sensei shook the water out of his hair before replying, "It would only be immoral if we were naked, Ayaka-chan."

Haruna opened her mouth when Naruto cut her off. "I'm wearing shorts, Haruna-chan."

Ignoring Haruna's huff of irritation, Nodoka managed to speak up. "S-so, N-Naruto-sensei, a-are the r-rumors true? W-will you have to s-stop teaching u-us?"

Naruto shook his head. "No."

The girls all sighed in relief, until Naruto finished his sentence. "I'd have to leave Mahora entirely."

The girls gasped again while Jenna snickered. "Way to break it to 'em slowly, sensei."

The girls gathered around each other, brainstorming ways to keep Naruto as their teacher. Yue nudged Nodoka in side and asked, "What about that myth, the one about the book that makes people smarter when they read it? It's supposed to be near the bottom level of Library Island."

Nodoka nodded unsurely, biting her bottom lip nervously. "I-It's only a m-myth, but I have h-heard-"

"Then that's it!" Asuna shouted, making the girls jump in surprise as she smacked a fist into her palm. "We'll go through Library Island and finds this book!"

As the girls began to plan the expedition, Ku Fei left the bath and wrapped a towel around herself, leaving for her room and the stacks of books there, with her fists clenched tightly, a promise in her mind.

"Well, it's only around five o'clock," Naruto said, drawing the attention of the girls. "And the exams are tomorrow at eight. If you want to make them and find the book, we should start getting ready now."

He stood up from the water and stepped out of the bath. "Coming, Zazie-chan?" He asked, holding a hand out for the acrobat to take. She grabbed it let him pull her out of the water, and they gathered their things and began to leave.

Before they left, Naruto turned and pointed at Jenna with a smirk. "By the way, Jenna. Nice chest."

Many jaws hit the water at this statement while Jenna grinned widely and hefted her rather formidable assets. "I know, right? Thanks for noticing!"

In the water next to her, Hailey tried to hold in her giggles, making the water froth around her mouth. "What?" Jenna asked in a clueless fashion, making the runner break out in full-blown laughter.

She glanced at Naruto in confusion, only to realize that he still had his blindfold on. "You asshole!"

…

The expedition group had gathered in front of the entrance to Library Island, ready to face whatever may lie in it's depths.

…expect for Negi, who had tried to take an early night, and was still in his teddy bear pajamas.

"Remember, gaki, your magic is still sealed, so be careful in here." Asuna whispered to the short red-head, who nodded sleepily and yawned.

"All right, let's set out!" Yue commanded from her position near the front, still sipping on a juice box.

As they entered, the people who had been inside before gasped in wonder at the tall book cases, stuffed full of rare and exotic books.

"Wow, look at this!" Negi exclaimed, running forward and reaching for one of the books. As soon as he laid a hand on it, a small click was heard before an arrow shot out of a hidden trap, straight for Negi's head.

Like a snake, a thin pink ribbon wrapped around Negi's waist and pulled him out of the way, the arrow embedding in the wood right next to his head.

"Be careful, Negi-sensei! This place is laden with traps, de-gozaru." Kaede warned, patting Negi on the head.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Indeed, Negi. You should never just grab rare works and- ah! The God From Below! I love that book!" Ignoring his own warning, Naruto plucked the old, leather-bound book off of the shelf and cracked it open, casually dodging three arrows that flew at his head.

The expedition made their way deeper into the inner sanctum of the library, dodging pitfalls and other traps along the way, allowing the girls to showcase their natural abilities; such as Makie's skill with her ribbon, which she used to pull herself to safety after the ground opened up underneath her; or when Kaede used her strength to break a book case that was falling on Negi; or when Jenna lifted a fallen book case that blocked their forward progress.

During this, Yue gave out the history of Library Island, which had been built as a way to store knowledge during World War 2.

About ¾ of the way through the Island, the expedition stopped on top of a gigantic bookcase, which had required the group to climb up, with Naruto carrying Negi on his back.

Hailey huffed and stuffed a piece of bread in her mouth, rubbing her scarred leg and wincing as Yue passed out the snacks she had brought with her. "We're making good progress. This is farther then I've ever gone before."

Konoka peered over Naruto's shoulder, trying see what he was reading about in his book, but found the words to be written in strange, spidery runes that she had no chance of understanding. "Naruto-kun, what are you reading? I don't recognize those letters at all!"

Naruto flipped a page and continued scanning the pages. "It's a story about a religion that worshipped various gods that came from the Earth, as opposed to the Heavens. One of the gods is," He made a strangled groan that was completely unintelligible and drew alarmed looks, "He was considered the god of love and fertility, as opposed to the classical version of women being deities of the same thing."

Konoka made an interested noise. "Hm. That sounds interesting. Can you tell me about it later?"

He smiled at her and nodded. "Sure."

As the expedition packed up and began to make their way further, Jenna sidled up to Naruto and nudged his side. "I bet you could tell her more about a 'God of Love' than that book says, right?"

Without looking up from his book, Naruto grunted in agreement. "Definitely. Though it is weird to be reading about myself."

They continued to blaze a trail, eventually coming to a tunnel that required everyone to crawl on their hands and knees in a single file line to continue.

"Congratulations, everybody." Yue commented from her spot in front of Naruto. "We are almost to our goal. We've gone farther than anybody else."

They came to the exit and helped the others out, before taking a look around at the chamber they found themselves in.

"Whoa!"

The chamber was huge, with strange carvings on the walls and a waterfall somewhere in the background. There was a long walkway that lead to a pedestal, which was guarded by two large statues, one carrying a hammer, and the other a sword.

"Look!" Negi shouted excitedly, pointing at the book. "That's the legendary Book of Merkisidek!"

"Awesome!" Asuna shouted exuberantly, pumping a fist in the air. "Let's get that thing!"

And without further ado, charged straight down the walkway, the rest of the class caught up in her attitude and following after her.

"This feels like a setup." Naruto muttered to himself eyes narrowed on the Hammer-wielding statue, feeling a familiar magical signature emanating from it.

"It usually is a setup," Hailey commented from beside him.

And, true enough, when they came within twenty feet of the book, the floor dropped out from underneath them, dropping the group into a pit with a checkered floor that had characters written on them.

The hammer statue jumped down into the pit, a deep, booming voice echoing out of it. "HOHOHO! If it is knowledge you seek, first, my riddles you must answer!"

Naruto helped Yue to her feet and grimaced at the statue, knowing full well who was behind that golem.

The golem's riddles involved translating words and phrases, by pressing on the tiles in a similar manner to Twister. Everyone became involved, even Naruto. He had to do the bridge, using his head as well. Kaede had to straddle his waist and press herself into Naruto to press the tiles under his shoulders.

Ever the tease, she used the opportunity to press her ample chest into his and lightly nip his chest through his shirt.

The last riddle came, "The final question!" The golem boomed once again, "What is the translation for 'dish'?"

Asuna thought hard for second, and then called out, "I got it! It's Osara!"

She bent herself some more to press one of the tiles as Makie followed her lead, only for Asuna to misjudge and press the wrong button.

The floor turned red as a loud buzzer rang out and the golem hefted it's hammer in it's hands. "WRONG! HOHOHO!"

The golem swung the hammer down into the tiles, which broke and dropped the expedition into a deep pit underneath it.

The most of the girls were screaming in terror as they fell and fell.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he saw the bottom of the pit, which opened up into a large body of water. _At this speed, most of the girls will be injured when they hit the water!_ His mind sped through options, finally coming on the one that would work. _Dammit, I hate being the hero!_

Reaching out grasping the air, Naruto waited until the right moment, when they were thirty feet above the water, and propelled wind from his hands to increase his speed, then threw out his arms into belly-flop.

He hit the water with a thunderous splash that threw water high into the air, the girls following seconds after.

…

**Chapter End.**

**A/N: I'm back, yo. **

**Funny thing; when I say "It won't take long" or, "I promise, the next one will come out quick", it tempts my muse to give me a Writer's-Block infused-punch to the Think Tank.**

**Fate is not the only thing that is a fickle bitch, turns out.**

…

**Thanks, once again, to NorthSouthGorem for the use of his characters. Bro, PM me so we can talk!**

**Enjoy yourself.**

**Keep Being Awesome!**

**~Soleneus**


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